Little Sailor America
by NKP765
Summary: A young Japanese woman in the 18th-century dreams of becoming a sailor, however, the government prevents anyone from entering or leaving the country, time and time again she watched as Dutch merchant ships docked on the shores of Japan to make trade deals, she hopped onboard one of the ships in secret, she soon was headed for Boston Massachusetts for an adventure as a sailor.
1. Chapter 1 1770, February 28th

There is nothing better than waking up to a nice calm ocean, the seagulls chatting, the calm waters flowing, and the singing of the shantyman at dawn…

"Oh the work was hard and wages low"

"_Leave her, Johnny, leave her!"_

"I guess it's time for us to go"

"_And it's time for us to leave her…:_

Hearing those words made me confused.

"Leaving? But only just got on board!"

I got up from my hammock and looked around for a moment, I was still on the ship! I couldn't believe it! Throughout the whole adventure, the crew never noticed me! How lucky am I to be…

But wait! How long was I at sea for? I looked out one of the cannon windows to see if I've made any progress at all, Low and behold, I saw a city much different than I was used to.

"And *Gasp* could it be? The flag of Union Jack! This is without a doubt Boston Harbor"

I've heard stories whilst on the voyage from Japan over to the newly found America, I've lived in Japan my entire life, I couldn't wait to see what this new world was like.

I grabbed my bundle and quickly fled past the crew to avoid notice, jumping down on the dock, running past the redcoats and into the town of Boston I went. I waved to the locals as I walked by but they didn't seem that interested, Perhaps it's a British thing.

As I was walking along I began to realize that I had nowhere to sleep for the night, I had money but I didn't think any of the inns would accept Japanese currency, that problem slipped away from me however as I saw something rather interesting in the distance, it was a local yelling at a British soldier, it was a woman with reddish-orange hair, and she seemed to be yelling at the Soldier lad. I had a sense of justice then, I had to stop this madness, I thought.

I ran towards the two, determined to settle things, but as I was running, I wasn't really looking where I was going, and I accidentally ran into someone and face planted onto the ground.

"Sorry…" I said as I got up. I looked up to see a figure wearing a military-like uniform and a Tricorne, Much to my surprise however it was a woman, a woman with light grey hair and pale skin. She picked up a map she dropped from the ground and continued walking as if it never happened. I grabbed my bag and ran up to her.

"What's that map you dropped for?" I asked.

"Are you a sailor? No, wait! You must be part of the British navy!"

The girl continued to walk, ignoring everything I was saying.

"Do they really hire women? That's so cool! I wish my country was more progressive…"

The girl kept ignoring almost as if I didn't exist! Still, I was persistent and asked more and more questions "Do you go on super cool adventures? Fight pirates across the seven seas? I've heard many stories about the powerful British Navy, and how many a Frenchman and Spaniard would shrivel beneath- The question was cut as the girl quickly turned around pointing a flintlock pistol at me. I was shocked and frozen with fear, yet I could still let a few words leave my lips. "O-Okay, sorry to disturb you, I'll be leaving now…"

The girl then lifted the pistol and pointed it towards the sky, and with the pull of a trigger…

"BAM" an ear-piercing sound echoed around the town, it was so loud that I went temporarily deaf, so deaf in fact that I didn't notice the screaming and running of the townsfolk after the shot, instead I saw the girl offering me the pistol, I was clueless but also very stupid, so I took the flintlock thinking it as a gift, I've never held a gun before in my life, such an interesting use for gunpowder, I went to thank the girl but she had disappeared when I was looking at the gun.

"Where could she be?" I thought to myself.

Suddenly the sound of the world returned to me, with the first words I heard being "HEY YOU!" I jumped and looked in the direction of the voice, it was a gang of redcoats looking quite angry at me. I didn't realize why until I looked at my hand, I screamed and threw the pistol away and dashed away.

Just running away wouldn't stop them, I looked behind to see a legion of redcoats running at me with Bayonets. "Shoot her!" I heard them yell, and saw soldiers atop of buildings with muskets ready to shoot me with a birds-eye view, I took confusing paths to try and avoid fire and lose the redcoats, that plan quickly fell short as I eventually tripped over some crates set up at a market, I tried to get up but upon tripping I broke my ankle.

My adventure was over before it even began...or so I thought. I went to grab my bag only to notice it had been picked up by someone else, a woman wearing round glasses and a tricorne similar to the pale-skinned lass. I expressed my great thanks to her, to which she responded by nodding and walked towards the docks.

Forgetting about the broken ankle I tried to get up only to scream in pain, Ms spectacles looked back at me, she was about to jump into a boat it seems. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Before I could answer I heard someone yell in the distance "There she is! Get her!"

Far away, the redcoats have finally caught up with me.

"I'm done for…" I said to myself, "They'll capture me! They'll hang me at the gallows for something I didn't even do…" I cried and whined until I felt a tug on my arm, Miss spectacles grabbed my arm and dragged me on her boat. "Hey! That hurt" I told her

"I'm very sorry but it was absolutely necessary" she responded, and with a swift movement, she gave wind to the sail and drifted the boat away from the shore. The last thing we saw was the redcoats shooting their final shots at the boat before giving up. This lady saved my life! I had to thank her. "A thousand blessings to you miss...uhh"

I suppose I should've asked the girl her name.

The girl looked back at me with a smile "Lotte Jansson. My name is Lotte Jansson"

I regained my confidence in hearing that.

"May you be giving a thousand blessings from the stars, Lotte. I promise to return the favour someday."

Lotte looked at me confused but then smiled. "What do they call you?" she asked me.

I had completely forgotten about that… "Atsuko Kagari, But I suppose _They_ just call me Akko"

I explained to her about Japan and when I used to live there, it was only recently when I decided to hitch a ride to this brand new world that I kept hearing about, though so far my first day there wasn't as great as I thought it would be… Although amusing how shocked Lotte was at this answer. "Japan?! Nobody is allowed to leave or enter there, how'd you escape from there?"

I didn't understand what got her so shocked all of a sudden… "It was easy! All I had to do was hop on board a trade ship and move on from there" I responded.

Lotte asked why I would ever do that in the first place, another easy reply for me! "Because It was so boring! The same boring traditions, the same boring foods, the same boring everything, when I was young I heard tales of a sailor by the name of Shiny Chariot who sailed and ventured across the entire world, and ever since then it was my dream to explore the world just as she did" I explained it all with much pride and joy.

"Shiny Chariot, huh?" Lotte had a tone that made it sound as if she knew who Chariot was.

"That certainly is a much more exciting story than the one I lead," Lotte said

Lotte explained to me about how she was just a simple merchant sailor from Finland

"My parents just want me to continue the family business" Lotte continued "And now that that bloody war is over the new world is perfectly safe for selling and buying, I forgot to tell you that we're sailing over to where my merchant ship is docked, it's not the best home but I'll be a place to sleep for the night"

A lot of things she were interesting but what most caught me was the mention of a war, thus Lotte told me about the 7 years war and how the discovery of America caused every European power to engage in a war for the newly found land, especially France and England.

Lotte turned her down, she looked almost sad about the whole story.

"It was a war that killed many a brave man," She said with a much more low tone "Now that we have weapons that can annihilate a target in one second, it is my hope that all nations will recoil from war and discharge their troops.

A wave of silence hit us both with the only sounds being the creaking boat and the ocean.

Lotte lifted her spirits and smiled "Hey! At least it's over now, Which were words that lifted my spirits as well. "At least the British got their colonies in the end!" I said. Lotte, however, didn't seem to share my same enthusiasm, "I wouldn't talk so highly of the British around the locals, they might bash your head in"

"How could the colonies hate the British?" I asked with much confusion, on the voyage from Japan to America, I heard many stories about England's powerful Navy, "Aren't they British themselves?"

Even though Lotte was busy sailing and keeping the boat steady she still was willing to answer my ignorant questions. "The recent tax increase has gotten the colonists very angry at the Britsh government, so anybody who starts praising the Brittish usually ends with them being thrown out of a bar window. I nervously replied "I'll...I'll keep that in mind"

It was getting dark out and yet we were still sailing out on the ocean. I groaned.

"How much longer till we get to this merchant ship you mentioned of?"

"It'll be a couple of hours till we get halfway if that makes you feel any better" Lotte replied.

I jumped up with disbelief, "WHAT!?, It'll be midnight by the time we get there!" I yelled.

Lotte didn't seem fazed. "The wind is blowing much stronger south, so we'll get there much sooner than usual, my guess would be about dawn"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, are sailboats really that slow? I went to complain about it all but just thinking about it made me tired, so tired that I laid down and fell asleep.

The night passed quickly, It wasn't long till I regained my conscious and woke up from my slumber, the first thing I heard was a voice.

"We're homeward bound, I heard them say, Goodbye Fare-thee-well, Goodbye Fare-thee-well"

We're homeward bound to Liverpool bay, Hurrah me-boys! We're homeward bound!"

That voice seemed familiar, I hear a lot of voices when waking up the morning, like my mom and dad, or the birds outside chirping, but this voice…

"Lotte?" I opened my eyes to see a bright clear sky and a large ocean.

"Look who decided to wake up," Lotte said.

It wasn't a dream! I really made it to the new world! I jumped up and danced around with glee,

Completely forgetting about my ankle however I immediately fell back down screaming in pain.

Lotte looked back to see what was going on, "I recommend you be more careful, you might fall off the boat"

My head was hurting as a boat wasn't a great choice for a bed, "How long was I asleep for?" I asked.

"Just long enough!" Lotte than pointed ahead to a small bay, "That is where The Luna Nova is docked! Though I reckon it'll still take 30 minutes before we get to the quay"

A lot of responses popped in my head at that point. "Luna...Nova?"

Lotte smiled "That's the name of my ship! They say she's the fastest merchant ship in all of Finland, She's my joy and my pride"

"Is it really the fastest?" I asked.

Lotte sighed, "Well she might be the fastest if I had a crew to help me sail her, The only reason we're on this small catboat is that I don't have a crew to sail a ship like The Luna Nova"

I noticed a few other ships in the bay already including a single... "Is that an English ship?!" I said with fear. "What if they see me?!"

"It's not like they're the same soldiers from Boston," Lotte said "Even if they were I doubt they'd recognize you"

That was calming to hear, but I still watched out just in case.

I was quickly distracted by another boat not too far away sailing into the bay as well.

The person who was managing the boat looked familiar, I tried to to get a better look with the limited space I had. it was the girl with the flintlock pistol!

I turned quickly to tell Lotte but I accidentally smacked her in the shoulder, knocking her back a bit and changing our course, we sailed and bashed right into the side of the boat that miss Flintlock was sailing.

Lotte quickly regained balance and steered the ship normally

The impact knocked me down, I tried to get up again with the first words I heard were, "Can you be any more of a pain in the neck?" I got up to see the flintlock lady from Boston harbour staring right at me.

"You!, YOU!" I said angerly "You were the girl I met in Boston! You almost got me killed!"

"You seemed like you might have been able to handle yourself...might have," She said sarcastically.

My face went red with anger, I was so close to beating that girl to a bloody pulp!

"And, well since you're here I might as well make use of you," she said in a sinister tone.

My anger turned to confusion as I saw her drift away from our boat and then quickly drifting back towards us.

And without much warning, the girl bashed into our ship, causing me and Lotte to scream and fall over. The boat now without control drifted to the side and sailed right into a nearby rock.

The front of the boat was destroyed and water was filling it up. The flintlock girl sailed up and jump on our boat, or rather what was left of it, she climbed up on the mast and hopped on the rock we hit, all just to grab a...a mushroom?

I got up and shook my fist at the flintlock lady. "You witch! You used us to grab nothing but a mushroom! I hope you'll bring to shore!"

The lass put the mushroom under her coat and turned to me, who had a red face about to blow, and Lotte who was just simply grabbing the things beneath the ship boards before they sank into the bay. "I'm sure you two can just swim the rest of way," Flintlock lady said while laughing.

She then jumped back on her own boat getting ready to set sail, our luck didn't run out yet it seemed however as Flintlock lady's actions didn't go unnoticed by the nearby British gunship that was heading our direction.

As miss Flintlock was gathering her things, she looked up to see muskets being pointed at her and cannons being loaded. "Shoot…" Said she.

The English soldier captured her with her hands tied behind her back and a gun pointed at her head.

The captain shouted orders to sail up to our recked boat,

"Don't worry, we'll get you safely to land" said the captain "And we'll have this girl hanged by dusk"

I simply nodded as I didn't know what to say.

"I suppose justice was served," Lotte said to me, and while that was right, I couldn't help but feel like this was wrong.

Disregarding my broken ankle I jumped up and climbed our mast just as miss flintlock did, and I jumped onto the rock as well. I hopped onto the mast of the British Gunship and tore off the Union Jack that it was flying, I then jumped down on the deck of the ship trying hard to ignore the pain in my ankle, I untied the rope keeping miss flintlock's hands behind her back and pushed her away,

I held the Flag in front of the soldiers, "Come any closer and I'll rip it in two!" I yelled.

The soldiers didn't seem all that scared. "Are trying to save the person who just attacked you?" The captain said.

I stayed determined "I don't care what she did, I know what'll happen to her and I know it's wrong!" I shouted.

Suddenly a gunshot was heard, I looked to see that it was miss flintlock holding a flintlock on her boat with Lotte. She shot the ropes on the sails making them go into Full sail. The soldiers all went to try and fix the problem, as they weren't looking I quickly jumped into the water and watched as their ship sailed straight into another nearby rock.

"Hey" a voice called out to me, "Hop on", I turned and saw Flintlock lady setting sail on her boat along with Lotte. I climbed on board and was relatively happy until…

"MY ANKLE!" I yelled, and drop down and screamed with much _much_ pain, I started to think if that was really worth it.

"Akko!" yelled Lotte "We need to sail to shore quickly!", it was then that miss flintlock walked up and kneeled down, she pulled out the same mushroom she picked up from the top of the rock earlier and started mixing it into liquid in a small mug, then she poured a drop onto my ankle.

Suddenly I felt fine! It was like magic! Like I never even broke my ankle in the first place.

"What...was that?" I asked.

The girl put a lid over the small mug and put away before replying, "That was the power Shoostona Mushroom, a mushroom that only grows on rocks near the water",

I got on my feet fine without any pain at all, I never thought that something like mushrooms could fix a broken leg. "Thank you so much!" I said, "I'm Atsuko Kagari, and you are?"

"Sucy Manbavaran" the lady replied.

With a new friend and high spirits, we sailed to the much anticipated Luna Nova.

"Hey, Sucy, I must ask why you were sailing here in the first place," Asked Lotte. That was a fair question, However, I wasn't all that sure what I, myself, was going to do when we hit the shore.

Sucy responded, "I hear that down in the forests of the new world many new types of mushrooms and herbs grow, so I decided to take a look for myself. When we get on shore I would like to be pointed to the nearest inn"

"If you need a place to stay I'd be happy to let you stay in my ship for the night, I have many hammocks to rest your head and I'll do it free of charge" Lotte suggested.

Sucy thought about it for a moment, "Well it's better than dealing with a stamp"

"There she is!" Lotte pointed out to ship on the dock "That is the great Luna Nova."

It was a simple merchant ship with two cannon windows on each side...without any cannons, two masts and a white and blue flag flying above it. I was a little disappointed,

"Is that it?" Said I

Lotte laughed, "What did you expect? A man of war?"

Lotte explained that it was built to both gain a lot of speed and carry a lot of cargo, she was a perfect ship for trading.

When we finally got onto the deck of the ship Lotte began to rummage through the cargo of the ship.

"What are we to do now?" I asked.

"We are to sail!" Lotte brought out an extra tricorne from the back, "After Akko just sank an English ship it wouldn't be smart to stay here"

Lotte walked up to me and put the tricorne hat on my head.

"You may now call yourself a sailor"

A chill went down my spine. "I'm really...a sailor?" said I, with glee.

"Well, not really a sailor as much as a landlubber with the title of sailor" Sucy pointed out.

I groaned but still was as happy as could be, My dream started today!

"Oh, and one more thing," Lotte said while bringing out two brooms from the back, "You may need these"

She handed me and Sucy a broom.

"Wait, what?" said I with much confusion.

"I thought you said I could stay here without charge" Sucy reminded.

Lotte smiled "I said without charge, nothing was ever said about work. Remember when I said I needed a crew to sail The Luna Nova? Well, now I have one! Now let us get over the first step of sailing a ship which is to clean her"

Yep, this was my dream alright...or so I thought.

* * *

Historical Info.

**The Seven Years War.**

The 7 Years War (Also known as the French and Indian War) that Lotte referenced was a conflict that despite its name lasted for 9 years, it was essentially a war between Britain and France, both countries were fighting for the Ohio River Valley, however it is far from a small war between two nations, You could say that the 7 Years War was the first world war, as it affected many countries, and set many famous historicals moments in motion (The American Revolution being one of them) While war hadn't officially been declared, there were still tensions rising between the British and the French, and tensions rising between Prussia and Hannover (Who were Allies of Great Britain) and Sweden, Saxony, Russia, and Austria (Who were Allies of France) The war officially started when France started to build forts in the Ohio Valley, and the leader of an armed British force (George Washinton) launched an attack on a small French force, this battle is known today as the Battle of Jumonville Glen, The war finally ended with the treaty of Paris and the treaty of Hubertusburg, For England it was a victory, as they were given bits of New France and all of Spanish Florida, However the conflint also made England go broke, this would cause them to lose their North American Colonies to a revolt.


	2. Chapter 2 1770, March 1st

I've almost forgotten what it's like to sleep on a bed, I've been sleeping on ship hammocks for months during my trip from Japan to America and I thought that when I finally get to the new world I'll get to sleep in a bed on land again, but here I am back in the ship's cabin deck.

"Akko! Wake up!" A voice called out to me, What time of day is it anyway? It feels way too early to be waking up already.

I opened my eyes to see who it was, I just woke up so everything was much of a blur to me "L-Lotte?" I whispered as I was still unable to speak well."What deserves such an early wake?"

"Well it's actually almost the end of the morning, listen I'll give you as much time as you need to get ready, meet me up on the top deck when you're done," Lotte said as she left the room.

Almost at the end of the morning?! Blimey, I need to sleep earlier, after 30 minutes I finally managed to get up from the hammock. That's right, yesterday we cleaned the ship, Luna Nova, Thought I, as I looked around the crew's quarters, Yesterday we only cleaned the dust bunnies and spiderwebs, but it looks today as if someone mopped the whole place up.

I noticed some clothes on the table next to my Hammock, it had a note attached to it, the note read..."That red dress you're wearing is pretty and all but unless you want it to get torn I suggest that you wear this for the sailing trips. -Lotte"

While I was a stowaway on that other merchant ship I found a pretty, long red dress in one of the cargo crates. I kept hearing that it was popular fashion in England, so I put it on and kept with it for the rest of the voyage.

I was hesitant on letting it go because of how beautiful it was, but if I am to work on a ship for some time, I should probably wear something that's easier to move around in.

The outfit I was given consisted of a white cotton shirt, brown trousers, a blue vest, brown overcoat and black leather boots, oh and of course the tricorne Lotte gave me yesterday, After a bit of trouble getting it all on I finally was dressed for the job, with the last finishing touch being the famous tricorne, I was filled with joy and excitement! My heart was pounding and my head was spinning, Adventure awaits me! My story was about to begin!

I ran up to the top deck to see what everyone was doing, much to my surprise however not much. Lotte was counting coins up at the helm, and Sucy seemed to be collecting mushrooms that were growing off the side of the ship for whatever reason.

"Hey, Akko" Lotte called to me, "Catch!" Lotte then threw one of the coins she was counting to me. I caught it then looked at what it was.

On it was a picture of a flower and a crown. "What is this?" I asked.

Lotte put the rest of the coins in a small pouch and walked down over to me, "That is a shilling" she said, "You'll want to know how the currency works around here if you want to work on a merchant ship"

"So you're just giving this to me?" I said tilting my head.

"Since you helped clean the ship yesterday I decided to return the favour by paying you, The more you work, the more you'll earn" Lotte explained.

I looked at it once more before putting it in my pocket.

According to Lotte, since I slept in too long I missed the chance to apply the finishing touches to cleaning the ship by mopping it, so I only got half of the usual pay.

Lotte started clearing her throat. "Alright, you two!" she yelled gaining the attention of both me and Sucy, "I believe it to be time to set sail, I saw a few English Frigates arrive at dawn to check out the wreck, it would be wise to leave now"

I could barely contain my excitement! For the first time in my life, I was going to help sail a ship! I stood there, eagerly awaiting orders.

"Hey, Akko!" Lotte called out to me, "Why don't you lay aloft the main mast and loose all sail?"

Without really comprehending what she just said I quickly saluted, "Aye aye, captain!" However, as soon as I turned around, I realized I had no idea what she said meant.

I slowly turned around back to Lotte, "Could you say that again" I said while laughing nervously and scratching my head.

Lotte sighed, "You see that large stick coming out of the middle of the ship? I want you to climb up that and go up to the sails and untie them from the arms, got that?"

I smiled again and nodded.

"Oh, and Sucy I want you to lay aloft the foremast and lose all sail," Lotte said.

"Aye," Sucy responded as if she knew exactly what Lotte meant. The two have obviously done this before. I didn't think it would be much of a problem climbing up to the arms of the mast, but when I got up there I noticed how high It looked, I held on to the arm tight hoping to not fall.

As I was carefully untying the sails I noticed that Lotte was drawing on a piece of paper, "Hey Lotte!" I yelled grabbing her attention, "Whatcha doing there?"

"I'm setting a course for Boston Harbour," she responded turning back to the paper. "There's cargo there we need to pick up"

"What kind of cargo?" I asked still trying to focus on untying the sails.

"Spice, sugar, whiskey, the usual," She said. "The Luna Nova has plenty of space left for more crates"

Another question came to mind after she said that "Why did you call the Ship, The luna Nova, anyway?"

Lotte stopped what she was doing for a moment, she put the paper and the quill in her coat before responding, "It simply means New Moon in Latin, according to my father, she was named after a magical place from the stars, a magical place where people would go to learn magical abilities"

"I've heard of that place," Sucy said, "I hear that there's a forest near it that has plenty of dangerous poisons" She laughed a sinister laugh.

The sails were all ready to hoist, and even though we only had the strength of three people we managed to lower all the sails with the cost of only a few hand burns.

Even though that took so much work and I really wanted to take a nap, Lotte called all of us to move the sails to starboard and port, great even more orders I didn't understand, I was afraid my hands would fall off.

After what seemed like hours of pulling ropes and moving sails the ship was finally moving! I started jumped around with glee, however, even though the ship was moving I had a feeling that the work wasn't over

"Sucy, Hoist the Outer Jib!" Lotte yelled, "And Akko, Haul the Span-" she stopped herself as she had already known that I wouldn't know what she meant.

Lotte cleared her throat, "The small sail at the back of the ship, go unfold that please" she said. That was something I could understand.

We managed to sail out of the bay okay, we were out on the ocean and we had our course set for Boston harbour.

Working as a sailor was a lot harder than I thought, I thought to be a sailor meant adventure! Fun! Excitement! But really it's just a whole lot of work.

However, most of the work we did, made time fly, as before I knew I saw the stone buildings of Boston once again.

You might think that docking a ship would be easy but it was just as complicated as setting the sails, I was almost missing Japan at the time.

After about 24 arm breaks the last thing we did was tie-up the sails and lower the anchor.

My legs felt weak, and even weaker felt my arms, as I walked on the quay I tried as hard as I could to not trip, however when Sucy and Lotte walked on the quay they looked as if they've barely broken a sweat, heck they look as if they could keep sailing another day or so.

"How do you guys look fine?!" I yelled.

Lotte seemed to be busy looking at what seemed to be a business sheet of paper, she heard me, however, saying "Well sailing is a thing me and Sucy have been doing for most of our lives,"

"All that practice makes you get used to it all" Sucy remarked, Lotte nodded as a response.

"Aaaanyway, Akko I haven't seen you eat at all since we first met a day ago so while we're waiting for the cargo I suggest we find someplace to eat.

That made me jump up, It's true I haven't eaten any food since I arrived in the new world, I've really been starving.

After Lotte paid the docking fee the three of us walked into town to find an eating house of some sort. We soon found a pub with a sign reading in big fancy letters "Gorge Miller's Pub"

We all walked inside to see a bunch of people dancing and drinking, with a band in the corner playing music.

We picked an empty table near the band that was playing.

I laid the side of my head on the table still feeling exhausted from all the work.

"Akko looks like she'll need a bottle of whiskey after today" Sucy snarkily said.

I raised my back, looking slightly cross "Sucy…" said I.

"I'd rather not have any drunken sailors on my ship" Lotte replied crossing her arms.

Sucy started stroking her chin "Akko does seem like the type to lose it after just a single shot"

I slammed my fists on the table in anger "That is not true!" I yelled.

Lotte started nervously laughing "Calm down you two, I can only afford water for all of us anyway"

I began to notice the woman that was leading the band in the corner, she was dancing and singing with a broom in her hand and was wearing a similar outfit to us three. "That girl looks familiar," I said pointing towards the broom dancer.

"Oh, she's a famous bard in Boston" Lotte replied. Lotte seems to know just about everything huh? "They say she's the gem the Irish crown, Amanda O'Neil, She's the star of the county down" Lotte explained.

I couldn't help but feel like I've seen her before, I didn't know where, and I didn't know why, all I knew was that she was making music along with European instruments I've never seen or heard before in my life.

"One, two, three, four, five, Hunt the hare and turn her, down the rocky road, and all the ways to Dublin, Whack-fol-lolly-rah!" The chorus went.

"What's a Dublin?" I asked turning back to face Sucy and Lotte.

"Dublin is the capital of Ireland," said Lotte.

That knowledge surprised me "Ireland has a capital city? Isn't Ireland part of England?

Lotte started to look very nervous after I said that, she looked in both directions to see if anyone was watching before answering, "Well it's sort of...complicated"

I leaned back on my chair looking up at the ceiling with my hands behind my head, "Ireland is part of the British Ilse, therefore it would make sense that the capital of both islands would be London"

Suddenly after I said that I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, I turned my head a bit to see the broom dancing lady crossing her arms looking very angry at me, I quickly jumped up from my chair fully facing miss O'Neil.

"Did I by chance overhear someone say that Ireland is just another pawn part of England?" she said giving me a stink eye.

I started nervously laughing "Um...well, maybe?" said I.

The lady looked as if she was going to blow up, "We've been fighting those British Huns for 800 years and still counting!" She yelled, "I don't care how much England has colonized us, oppressed us and killed us, it's Ireland for the Irish! Not for London nor for Rome!"

Everybody around her started lifting up their drinks and cheered, by the end of it all three of us got kicked out of the pub. It was freezing, we were in the pub for a while as it started snowing outside, and the day turned to dusk.

"On the bright side, we got out just in time to pick up the cargo for the ship" Lotte pointed out.

Even more, work for us to do.

As we were hauling the crates I started thinking about what that Amanda girl from the pub was saying.

"It's not the fault of the British you know," Lotte said to me, somehow knowing what I was thinking.

"It's not the fault of the Britsh citizens, nor even the British Military, all of England is lead by one King, and it is that King that controls where the soldiers go and how the citizens live" Lotte explained.

That was an interesting way to look at things, although as usual, I stopped thinking about when I got distracted by something else, I noticed through the snow a building, it was a library, something I was missing from Japan was a nice book to read, and I always wondered what English literature was like.

I asked Lotte if I could check it out for a bit, and she responded saying "Go ahead, Just please don't cause any troub-" she was cut off however as I immediately said thank you and ran off to the library.

Lotte Sighed.

"That girl is going to be the death of us," Sucy remarked.

I ran inside to see that it was very empty, with the only other person there was the Librarian, asleep on the desk. I checked through the thousands of books until something caught my eye.

The Shiny Chariot.

The cover was simply those words, I flipped through the pages to see if it was what I thought it was,

A believing heart is the most powerful magic, one of the pages read.

It was! It was the English version of the story of Shiny Chariot! I hugged the book and brought it up to the desk.

The librarian was still asleep and while I was going to wake her up, I probably didn't have the money to buy the book, I look at the librarian's desk to see a name, presumably the name of the librarian. "I'll pay you back someday… Ursula Callistus" I said quietly.

I walked outside the door and started to head back to the ship, accidentally however I ran right into two other folks taking a walk, making me fall over.

As I got up I heard one of them say, "Why don't you look where you're going?"

I dusted myself off and looked up to see two very fancily dressed women, one with red hair and the other with dark blue hair. They didn't look too pleased with what I did. "I'm very sorry!" I said waving my hands

The two looked at each other, "The common folk here really don't know their manners do they?" said the red-haired one. The blue haired-one nodded, "The low-class citizens here are outrageous, I always hear them yelling and jumping around in the taverns, absolute savages!"

Not so fond of the common folk I noticed, "That isn't very nice…" I said to the two.

They looked back at me, "Oh you're still here"

They scoffed at me, "Please learn how to walk once in a while, it would do us all good, oh and please respect your higher-ups with the little amount of respect you have" They started laughing.

I looked down and backed away, feeling very awful for some reason, suddenly however someone out of sight spoke.

"Why don't you pick on someone with your own social status?" the voice said. Behind the two women was, much to my surprise, Amanda O'Neil from the pub.

The fancy ladies turned around to face her, she approached them while spinning her hat on her finger.

"What did ya come here for? To laugh at those less fortunate than you so you can forget about your own terrible lives?" Amanda said with a grin.

The two looked at each other, "Look, Hannah dear! It's an Irish immigrate!" The other laughed, "Why did you come here? Is it because you couldn't bear to see your feeble nation fall to the British power?"

Amanda put her hat on and looked at them fiercely. "Are ya startin'?"

O'Neil then grabbed a sword strapped on her hip and pointed it at both of the ladies, "Run back to your own true country"

The two jumped back, "You barbarian!" they screamed, they ran away as quickly as possible.

I looked up at Amanda, "Why did you do that?" I asked.

Amanda let out a sigh of relief and put the sword back in its scabbard. "Because the rich really need to get it into their heads that no matter how much money one has, we're all human and should be treated with respect"

"Okay, but why did you save me? I said the same horrible things as they did" I asked.

Amanda smiled, "Ha! Ya did nothing of the sort, you're obviously new to this new world, and I can understand why ya might not be familiar with some things"

Another question came to my mind after she spoke, "Why are you here in America instead of Ireland?"

Amanda's smile turned to a frown, she then looked down. "You see I was once part of the British Navy as a prisoner, it was either that or jail, it was a harsh life, I managed to escape, however, but not without notice, wanted posters of me were posted all over Ireland, and so I can never go back"

"I'm so sorry…" said I.

Amanda then looked up at the sky and the snowfall, "I wonder if that harsh life ruined sailing for me, truthfully I miss the fun of it all, the sailing with my family, the calm ocean waters, the songs and such, it was nowhere to be found in the Navy"

The Luna Nova could use a few more crewmates, this was a perfect opportunity to ask this retired sailor if she wanted to join us.

"Oh, by the way, the names Amanda," she said looking back at me.

"Amanda O'Neil, my friends told me," I said back.

A long silence broke between us.

I eventually spoke, "If you want, you can join aboard our ship, we really could use more crew members," I said smiling, she looked at me, thinking about it.

Sucy and Lotte were still hauling crates back at the ship with only three more to bring in.

"Akko has been gone for an awfully long time…" Lotte said in a worried tone.

"Maybe she's already been hanged by the guards," Sucy said in her usual sarcastic tone.

"Sucy!" Lotte said, "Don't say things like that!"

Sucy found it funny as she started laughing at Lotte's response. I came running to the ship as fast as I could, "Sucy! Lotte! I yelled" The two heard me and saw me running towards them. As soon as I arrived I stopped and took a moment to breathe.

"Oh, so she's not dead," Sucy said, How long does it take for one to walk around a small library, Did you by chance read an entire book?"

"Well, I got held up a bit, but I found a new member for the crew!"

Lotte and Sucy had already noticed that beside me stood Amanda O'Neil.

Amanda tipped her hat, "So I heard from miss Kagari over here that ya lads need an extra sailor! I'd be happy to join if you'll have me"

"But then we'd have to pay another person," Sucy said.

Lotte jumped up, "We would love for you to join!"

When all the cargo was in and we were all on the ship, the captain was ready to give orders. With the help of an extra and noticeably more strong sailor, setting the sails of the ship was a lot easier than before with only Sucy, Lotte, and I.

The sailing itself was much easier as Amanda now worked as a shantyman, she lifted up all of our voices and made the work feel like minor chores.

Things were finally looking up!

"_Haul on the bowline, homeward we are going! Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul!"_

* * *

Historical Info.

**Luna Nova.**

The school of Luna Nova is based on the real-life ruins of the Glastonbury Abbey, the two Areas differ however in terms of history, The fictional school of Luna Nova was created in the 5th century year 420 by the Nine Old Witches (Who's names have yet to be given), which was the same year that the Jin Dynasty fell in China, however that may not be as important as the fall of the Western Roman Empire, which certainly didn't happen in the Year 420 AD but it's a reminder that Rome at this period of time has conquered southern England, where the Fictional town of Blytonbury lies and where the Leyline terminal leading to Luna Nova lies, This would help explain why the School uses Roman numerals as a numbering system and has the use of the Latin language instead of Gaelic despite the show being based on Celtic mythology (Luna Nova is Latin for New Moon) The historical Abbey was founded in the 7th century (712) by the Britons, it was a catholic Abbey that is home to many legends and myths, the most famous of which is the legend of King Auther, It was later inlarged by the Saxons in the 10th century, and it was seen as a prize by Whilliam the Conqueror because of its wealth during the Norman conquest. Something that both of the places have in common is that at one point they were both burned, The Glastonbury Abbey was burnt down by accident in the 12th century 1184, it was later rebuilt in the 14th century and became one of the richest monasteries in England, that is until The Suppression of Monasteries starting 1536. The date when Luna Nova was burnt is not known, The lore of Little Witch Academia tells me it happened during the Witch hunts, however, that is a very long period of time, but we can assume it was between 1450 and 1750.

**Boston Town**

Ah the old America town of Boston, located in the modern state of Massachusetts it is one most well-known cities across new England and across the US in general, Before European settlers came along, Native American tribes called the land Shawmut, referring to a body of water, when English Protestants arrived in the land they called it Trimount, which is a short way of saying Three Hills, it was later renamed to Boston, which seems like an odd change but it makes more sense when you realize there's an English city with the same name, Many Protestants fled to the city from Europe to escape religious persecution, which is an entirely different story on its own. Boston town was a very important city during the American Revolution, and many famous events happened there, events that will no doubt appear in this story.

**Ireland**

So if you haven't noticed, Amanda is Irish, and I can't think of a better way to improve a character, The thing I love more than American history is English history...and the thing I love more than English history is Irish history, Amanda throughout the story will make many references to the culture and land of Ireland, in today's day and age when you or someone else says "Ireland" you or that person is probably referring to the Republic of Ireland, this doesn't include Northan Ireland as that part of the land (If Brexit goes well) is owned by the British, back in the days of the American Revolution and many years before and after then, all of Ireland was colonized by the British, Amanda in the story will make many references to Irelands historicals events and popular Irish folk songs, some of which are older than the 13 American colonies themselves.


	3. Chapter 3 1770, March 2nd

"Haul on the bowline so early in the morning!"

"_Haul on the bowline the bowline haul!"_

"Haul on the bowline, Kitty is my darling!"

"_Haul on the bowline the bowline haul!"_

"Haul on the bowline, Kitty lives in Dublin Town!"

"_Haul on the bowline, the bowline haul!"_

"Haul on the bowline, the Skipper is a growling!"

"_Haul on the bowline the bowline haul!"_

Day has dawned once more, and I honestly can't think of a better way to wake up, than to the sound of my shipmates singing, what wasn't so nice to wake up to was the freezing cold, it was very cold before but now that it has started snowing it felt like my fingers would fall off.

After getting ready I walked up to the top deck, We were already docked up in front of a different town that I had never seen before, However, I had no memory of docking up the ship.

Lotte, as usual, was up at the helm resting her arms on it, until I called out to her that is. "Hey, Lotte!" I yelled grabbing her attention, "Where are we right now?"

Lotte looked towards the town and then back to me, "This is the Colony of Virginia" she answered.

Virginia? I've never heard of the place before but I guess that's the joy of exploration, you'll find places you've never seen before!

"I told you yesterday, that we were going to do our first trade here" Lotte explained, "There was an awful storm yesterday, while you were pulling the masts to starboard you fainted, we put you to bed and sailed the rest of the way," She said.

"Oh…" I said in a low tone.

"This is going to be a long winter for Akko," Sucy said.

"Ay Akko!" a familiar voice said to me, "I have a gift for ya!"

I turned around to see Amanda holding a musket along with a small pouch and strap with a bunch of bottles attached.

"Whilst you was asleep I went and bought us all some gear in case we run into trouble," she said as she handed me it all. I noticed that Amanda had a musket on her back held by a strap, a pouch on her shoulder and another strap also with bottles attached to it. The same equipment was on Sucy and Lotte.

Following everyone else, I put the pouch on my left shoulder, the bottle strap around my body from my right shoulder to my waist, and the gun with the strap on the gun around my neck and the musket on my back.

Amanda smiled, "Ya look like a real soldier lad now! Why don't ya show us what you have by firin' at the ocean" She said pointing at the waters.

I nodded with excitement, I had never fired a gun in my life, and secretly it was something I've always wanted to do.

I grabbed the musket from my back and pointed it at the ocean, I then pulled the trigger.

…

Nothing happened, I looked at the gun with confusion.

"You don't know how to fire a gun do you," Amanda said.

I laughed nervously, "I may need a little practice"

"It's simple," Amanda said while grabbed her gun from her back. "Just follow what I do"

Sucy stopped doing whatever she was doing to check out what was happening, "This should be good," she said.

Amanda began to speak, "First you open the pan, which is near the end of the musket, here"

I had already lost what she said, the last words I heard before going deaf were, "You put your shot in, you jam it down with the ramrod, you blow on the match cord, open the pan, point towards your target and…" BOOM!

After the smoke cleared and my hearing came back it was time to take my shot, and after doing everything Amanda said I had to do, I pulled the trigger.

…

Nothing happened, I groaned.

"That can happen sometimes, just refill the pan and try again," Amanda said.

So I did just that, I pointed ahead and pulled the trigger.

…

Once again, nothing happened. I began to whimper, "Why can't I get this to work! This gun must be faulty" I whined.

Sucy then came up and grabbed the gun from my hands and prepared it herself, she pointed it towards the ocean and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The sound was even more deafening as Sucy was right next to me as she took the shot.

Sucy handed me the musket back without a word.

Amanda faced palmed. "This may need some work"

"We can teach Akko how to fire later, for now, we have some stuff to sell," Lotte said to us.

Amanda leaned towards me and Sucy, "Don't tell Lotte this but I actually stole this gear from a nearby British fort" She said quietly, Sucy in response laughed her usual sinister laugh, however, I didn't know how to feel about it.

As the day went on we sold a grand amount of things, it made all the hard work we did feel worth it as we made quite a pretty penny from it.

As we were hauling in the remaining crates that weren't sold I asked what we were to do next.

"After we bring the rest of the cargo in we are to go find a Prussian mechanic, they promised us that they can build us cannon for the ship" Lotte explained.

That is one thing the Luna Nova has been lacking I suppose.

After that was dealt with we walked through the snow and through the town.

I noticed on the road a very fancy carriage, inside appeared to be a young woman with a bright blue dress and green and white hair, "Who is that lass?" I asked pointing towards the carriage.

Lotte looked at it, "I've never seen such a fancy carriage out in America until now" she responded, "Perhaps she is the daughter of the King?"

Sucy shook her head, "if she was the daughter of old George the 3rd she'd have been shot by now"

"I'd recognize that stuck up witch anywhere, Diana Cavendish is the lassie's name" Amanda explained "She's part of a long line of rich and selfish British folks"

As we were talking the young rich lass stepped outside her carriage and noticed us talking.

"She's a supporter of the British government," Amanda continued to say, "Totally fine with the amount of tax the colonies have been getting"

"You do realize that Britain is being much more taxes than these colonies right?" a voice said to us.

Behind Amanda stood The rich Diana with her arms crossed and with a cross look on her face.

"If anything, His Majesty is being generous to you," Cavendish said.

Amanda turned around looking incredibly angry. "Generous? GENEROUS?!" she said with furry. "What did the folks representing the colonies in parliament say about the whole situation? Oh right, nothing, because there aren't any!"

"You forget the place of the colonies" Diana responded, "They are not supervised by the English, they are the English"

Amanda showed her fist to Cavendish saying, "These Colonies aren't British nor French or Spanish, This is America and maybe it's about time we govern ourselves, perhaps it can start with me punching that smug look off your face"

Diana brushed away her hair, "You Irish citizens, preferring mindless violence over diplomatic and sensible talking"

Amanda laughed "Look who's talking! Why don't you run over back to your precious redcoats, I hear that the reason they're red is because they are made from all the blood that the British spilled"

This argument felt like it would go on for a while until two other fancily dressed ladies came over to us.

They were the two ladies from Boston yesterday, "Diana darling what are you doing?! Don't waste time with these peasants!" they both said. Diana sighed, you're right, we have more important things to do" The three then walked away back to the carriage.

Lotte cleared her throat, "Alright let's keep moving"

We continued to move through town until we reached a stone building, Lotte stopped in her path to look up at it, "This is the place we're looking for," she said.

We opened the door to see that the interior was mostly wood, it had lanterns set up around the house and a fireplace near the end of the first room.

"Hello?" Lotte called out when entering, suddenly we heard footsteps above us as a little girl came running down the stairs to greet us, the girl was rather short and had dark blue hair, she was wearing a servant's outfit that was covered in dirt and ash, and had goggles just above her eyes.

"Oh, Hello," Lotte said to the girl, "Do you know where Constanze is?"

The girl nodded and gave us a hand gesture telling us to follow her. She led us outside the back door, where stood in front of us were 8 cannon, Lotte smiled, "Ah, The cannons that were promised! But where's Constanze?" she asked.

The little girl pointed at herself, "You...are Constanze?" Lotte said in surprise. The girl nodded, this was a surprise to everyone, as the girl looked way too young to be working on things like cannon and the like "Well, thank you so much for the supplies," Lotte said. The girl gave her a thumbs up.

"Could we also trouble you to help us move the cannon?" Lotte asked. The girl nodded in response.

Something I learned today is that cannon, even ones with wheels, are very heavy and take a lot of force to push, while it took only the strength of a single person to push each cannon it was very hard to push them through the snow all the way back to the ship, when we finally got to the ship we had to push them up a slope onto the ship, as I pushed my cannon on I noticed that the slope was slippery as ice, I tried as hard as I could to not slip but eventually I slipped hitting my head on the cannon and fell right into the cold as ice water, which amused Sucy quite a bit.

After what felt like days we finally hauled in all the cannon and placed them in their right place, four on the main deck and four on the top deck, each tied down to make sure they didn't roll away.

Lotte handed Constanze a bag of coins, "Here is the payment as promised" Lotte then grabbed something from her pockets, she presented 5 more shillings to the girl, "And here's for helping us move the cannons" Lotte said, However, the girl waved her hand refusing the offer,

"Why not?" Lotte asked, Constanze went and grabbed a note from her pocket and handed it to Lotte, "You want us to sail you to Boston?" Lotte said. The girl nodded.

Lotte smiled and looked at me Sucy and Amanda, "Work well mates! We have a guest on our ship today" Lotte said.

After we brought out the sails we had our course set for Boston once again.

Constanze was down below in the main deck while we were sailing and singing.

It was in that moment of work however that I noticed a ship in the distance heading our way, usually on our voyages I'd see plenty of other ships, but I had a bad feeling about this one. It was then that we heard a loud bang across the ocean, cannon shots flew past and in front of our ship faster than I could imagine! They may have all missed, but it was a clear warning to us that the ship was not friendly.

Even though that was terrifying and I almost got a heart attack from it, everyone else seemed relatively calm, Amanda wasn't frightened at all when she told Lotte, "Aye, Captain, Pirates have been spotted"

Was it all over? Was my adventure over already? Well, this certainly wasn't the first time I thought this but I sure thought it would be my last.

"The cannon almost hit us! What are we to do now!" I yelled in terror.

"Relax," said Sucy "There's no reason for them to sink the ship, they just want to steal our stuff"

That made me feel a little bit better but once I saw them raise the black flag I couldn't help but quiver.

Amanda walked up to me and handed me a sword in its scabbard, "You may need this if you can't learn to properly use a gun" Amanda said.

Holding the sword and marvelling at its greatness, I strapped it on my hip.

The ship came to our side and from it launched many ropes with hooks at the end to latch onto our ship.

And from the pirate ship swung in a few sailors looking very fierce and strong. Sucy Amanda and Lotte looked very confident as if they were sure that we'd be fine.

One of the sailors spoke, "Alright ladettes, you have two options when confronting us, you can give us all you have and we'll be off our merry way, or have yourselves killed and have your ship sunk" the man said while pointing a sword up to Amanda's throat, Lotte who wasn't a fighter came running down to talk to them, I noticed while this was all happening that Sucy had been reloading a flintlock pistol behind her in secret.

"We'll give anything as long as you let us go with a ship and a crew to sail with" Lotte nervously said.

The man smiled, "You made the right choice" although when he was about to speak again a gunshot was heard, Sucy against all reason shot the man and we all watched as the man dropped dead on the deck, I almost screamed. Sucy then blew away the remaining smoke coming from the gun and started to reload again.

Lotte started shaking, "Is it still possible to negotiate?" she said.

All the sailors around the now dead man started yelling and pointed their swords and muskets towards us, both Sucy and Amanda were ready for this however with weapons already in their hands, Lotte and me weren't ready in the slightest, Lotte went and grabbed the musket from her back to shoot at the men from far away, I, however, didn't even know how to fire a musket.

Both Amanda and Sucy were doing a fairly decent job at keeping the pirates at bay even though they were heavily outnumbered. The pirates were pushing the two back, however, our hope was dwindling, I looked up at the helm where Lotte was, and while it looked like she was going to fire at the pirates, she appeared to be struggling to even pull the trigger, she eventually lowered the gun down as she couldn't bring herself to shoot it.

It was then that a shot was heard, not from Lotte's gun but from slightly below, Constanze, the young-looking girl who built us our cannon came to our aid holding a flintlock pistol in both hands. She was now wearing that same outfit me and the crew have been wearing for days rather than that maid's uniform, she then took another shot with her other pistol effectively killing the pirate that Amanda was at cross guards with, it was at this point that I had been fully convinced that Constanze is no little girl.

Constanze threw away her two pistols and walked up to the battle unsheathing two swords that were attached to her hip. She's so cool! I thought to myself. With her help, the pirates were pushed back significantly.

Then I overheard someone on the opposing ship yell, "Man the cannon!"

It would've only taken a single cannon shot from their much bigger and more powerful ship to sink the Luna Nova, so already I lost hope"

We then heard cannon fire, not from the enemy ship but from far away behind us, Cannon shots began to rain on top of the pirate's ship, destroying it and sinking down to the drink,

Amanda cut off all the remaining ropes attached to the ship so that we wouldn't sink with it, and Sucy stabbed the last pirate with a bayonet rifle.

We all looked behind us to see a massive ship sailing in our direction, luckily this wasn't an enemy ship it was a British Man of War.

"She's a monster!" Amanda said while facing the British ship.

As the Man of War sailed up to us we were greeted by not only redcoats but also by Diana Cavendish who just happened to be on the ship.

"Diana?" I said in confusion.

"His Majesty gives his regards," Diana said staring right at Amanda. Amanda groaned. "Are those bloody Mortars on a ship?!"

After we cleaned up the gunpowder and blood we sailed on our original course to Boston with the British Man of War supervising us the whole way there, Constanze even helped us sail the ship as she apparently had sailing knowledge.

After the light of day turned to the darkness of night we docked up in Boston harbour, Constanze was kind enough to fix all the damages that have been done to the ship.

"Your skills in sailing and fighting are quite impressive!" Lotte said to Constanze, "If you want, you can join on board our ship, we could use a bigger crew"

Constanze waved her hand refusing Lotte's offer, giving Lotte a note that read… _I have unfinished business here in the New world that must be dealt with, but once I've made my fortune, I may very well consider your offer_

Lotte after reading the note looked up and saw that Constanze had already walked off into the city.

"Do you think we'll ever see her again?" I asked.

Lotte put the note in her pocket before answering "I'm sure someday we'll cross paths"

That made me smile.

"Anyhow, it was lucky that she chose Boston because I was planning to arrive back here anyways to grab more cargo for the ship," Lotte said.

That made me groan

I looked to the side to see the British Man of War one more time before we were to go and haul crates, on it I saw Diana and her two friends, her two friends were chatting to each other while Diana was holding and staring at a tricorne, her look made it look as if she was feeling a longing feel.

Usually, the Boston Library is quiet, not many people walk into it, as there is a much better library to choose from in Boston, the caretaker of the place, Ursula, didn't mind, however, it was nice and quiet and she had plenty of books to read.

One day however someone opened the door looking quite stressed.

Ursula looked at the person who entered and smiled. "Hello Croix, what brings you out here in Boston?"

"Chariot! What in the hell are you doing here?!" Croix asked with much distress.

"Making a peaceful living, how are things with you?" Ursula responded.

"You idiot! You could be killed if a redcoat so much as if they hear you speak!" Croix yelled.

Ursula was unphased, "Speaking of redcoats, when did you become one?" she pointed out that Croix this entire time had been wearing the military uniform of a British Soldier.

Croix then ripped off the redcoat and threw the tricorne on the ground and slammed her hands on the desk, "I disguised myself to hop on board a British Man of War, and you wouldn't believe what I saw"

Ursula simply drank a bit of tea after hearing that.

Croix sighed, "I just happened to be on the same ship as a Cavendish"

"Is this important?" Ursula asked.

"Very, I'm seeing things I don't usually see, the gods are foretelling a war that is to take place here in the new world"

Ursula put her cup of tea down and sighed, "Yes I've noticed these things as well…"

"Woodward told me that if this Cavendish is to stay here she will be killed, the descendant of Beatrix will fall, the heir to the great witches of the Roman Empire will die," Croix said.

Ursula spoke in a concerned tone "Ah...so this is important"

* * *

Historical Info.

**England**

And yes, just England, not the United Kingdom of Scotland, Wales, Northen Ireland, and England, not Great Britain the largest island in the British Isles, just England, where all the fancy tea-drinking blokes come from. Just like many countries in Europe, Englands beginnings can be traced back to the Roman Empire, Britain at the time was home to many different Celtic tribes, some of which are still present today, of course, Rome didn't conquer all of England in one single invasion as it took many different battles and wars and years to capture all of it, they finally did it in 43AD, they were so proud of themselves that they tried to conquer Scotland as well, which didn't go as well, but hey at least they have England. Just as it didn't take a full invasion to take all of England, it didn't take one mistake of Rome to lose all power to England, The Roman Empire was a mighty empire, however at times it was only standing on a few toothpicks, Civil wars broke out often and while Julius Ceasar's death is very famous it wasn't far from the only assassination of a Roman Emperor, Rome slowly overtime just lost the power over England, it was when Rome couldn't afford to keep soldiers in Britain while the Germanic tribes were attacking the rest of the Empire that all Roman power to England was lost, which is where the Saxons saw their chance to establish a settlement, and now you can see how it got to here today, England would later "Unite" the Kingdoms of Scotland and Wales into the United Kingdom along with Ireland, Ireland would later revolt in the first World War, and now it's just the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northen Ireland. Diana (Just like Amanda with Ireland) will be making many references to English historical events and culture in this story, so keep your eyes open and see if you can understand any of them.

**Pirates**

The term pirate is very broad but when someone says it they are probably referring to the golden age of piracy pirate, but it is good to understand that pirates have existed as long as boats and ships. Ancient Egypt, Colonial Caribbean, and even today pirates roam the earth. The Golden age of Piracy is where the stereotypical pirate originates from, famous names like Edward teach and Jack Rackham appear in this short time period, and movies would later take these pirates and butcher them so it makes for a more fun movie. The way the Golden age of Piracy began was after the Spanish Succession, Privateers who fought for their crown in the Caribbean during the war against French, Spanish and English navel ships found themselves without a job after the war was over, but since they still had their ships and guns they decided to steal from merchant ships and become pirates.

As a side note, the plural for cannon is indeed cannon.


	4. Chapter 4 1770, March 5th

I've been working as a merchant sailor for about 5 days now, and It already feels like it's been 100 years, but even so, I have no real idea on how to sell, sail, or shoot, All I've really done is pull ropes to set up the ship and then for a large amount of the voyage, I was only the lookout, basically I looked out on the waters for hours on end doing absolutely nothing.

Once again we were outward bound for Boston Harbour, The first time I saw the city I was overwhelmed with excitement and happiness, but now I've almost become sick of it, it's the only place we go to for more Cargo.

Lotte did mention that Boston is one of the better places to go to for good quality materials, which I guess makes sense but I wanted to explore! Explore and map the world as Shiny Chariot did years ago.

I suppose I didn't have much strength to do any of the physical work, but at least I get to watch out on a beautiful blue ocean during the whole voyage...that is if it wasn't snowing all the bloody time.

As the ship was sailing I heard someone singing, usual Amanda is the one that raises our voices and has us sing shanties many times a voyage, even Sucy with her monotone voice gives an effort to the chorus, but this time it was a single voice singing this song, Lotte at the helm was quietly lilting a song.

"Wrap me up in my oilskins and blankets, no more on the dockside I'll be seen, just tell me, old shipmates, I'm taking a trip, mates, and I'll see you someday in Fiddler's Green"

My curiosity overwhelmed my sense of duty, so I went over to ask her about it.

"Are you going anywhere, Lotte?" I asked with a slightly concerned tone, as the lyrics made it sound like she was going to leave us.

Lotte jumped, "Ah! Akko, you scared me" she said while recovering from the scare, "It's only a song, I don't plan on going anywhere"

Another question came to my mind, "Well, what is the song about?"

Lotte looked out on the ocean and back at the helm before answering, "Fiddler's Green is a place that is rumoured to take in retired sailors after they've experienced their final day"

That sounded a bit lame compared to the name, "So, it's like a retirement home?" I asked.

Lotte giggled, "I think it's a bit more complicated than that, it's an otherworldly place, a place where there's a fiddle that never stops playing on a ship that needs no work to sail"

"Can we find that ship?!" I asked quickly with starry eyes. The sound of a ship that needed no work to sail on sounded amazing! We would become rich off of shipping cargo on a ship where we didn't even need to do anything!

Lotte sighed, "It's only a rumour, Akko,"

"But what if it isn't?" I said "What if it really is out there on the Atlantic Ocean, We could find it! We could sail around the entire world with it!"

Lotte then looked at the ground, "Well I wouldn't be sure, all I have about it is the songs and dreams I had as a kid"

My enthusiasm about the magic ship faded when I heard her say those words, "Dreams?" I asked.

Lotte smiled a tiny bit, "When I was young my father would always go out on sailing trips in the Luna Nova, and he'd sing me that song whenever he came back home, when I went to bed each night, I dreamed about Fiddler's Green, and how amazing the place must be"

"After all the work we've been doing, a ship that requires no work to sail sounds amazing," I remarked.

Lotte turned to me, "Aye, all you would do is lie down and stare at the sky, hearing the seagulls chatting on the sea while the Oldman was making tea for the crew" Lotte turned her head up at the sky, closing her eyes and generally looking very merry.

And her looking merry made me merry too, Lotte sounded as if she had a very nice childhood. "You mentioned that your father was a sailor," I said, "is he in Fiddler's Green?"

Lotte's merry looked turned to sadness after I said that, she looked down at the ground, I couldn't see her eyes, only the light reflecting off of her glasses from the sun.

"Akko?" Lotte said to me.

"...Yes?" I said in a worried tone.

"You've gone five minutes outside of your station" Lotte reminded me.

I stuttered before responded, "...You're right, I'll head back to work,"

I went and climbed back up to the lookout, and low and behold, the town of Boston was ahead of us once more.

As I stepped out of the ship I noticed something strange, well, two things that were strange, one of them was that there were no cargo crates in the storage house where we usually get them from, two, The citizens out on the streets seemed much more angry than usual, some of them were chanting things like, "No taxation without representation!" and "Go on home British Soldiers!" and such.

I asked Lotte about the first strange thing because I had a feeling that she would be the one to know.

"Sometimes we have to wait before the cargo arrives," Lotte said while puffing out the dust in her hat, "In the meantime, we could go find somewhere to eat" Lotte put her hat back on and started looking ahead in the streets, presumably for a restaurant of some sort.

Then there was the second strange thing, "What are the civilians doing?" I said casually pointing at the riots.

Lotte looked at the crowds for a while before answering, "I'm...not really brave enough for politics" she said nervously.

Amanda, looking quite happy to get a break, stepped out of the ship and stretched her arms. "I can't be bothered to explain it all at this point" Amanda then crossed her arms while looking at the crowds, "They're drunk and angry at the British, That's the basic gist of it"

A simple yet reasonable question popped into my head then, "But why?"

Sucy, who this entire time was picking up mushrooms growing from the dock wood, stopped for a moment to try and answer the question, "Because It's human nature to dislike taxes" she said putting the remaining Mushrooms under her coat.

Another question raised in my head, a question that I had ever since Lotte said the word to me, "What are taxes?"

We all fell silent then, Sucy Amanda and Lotte all looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Do they not have taxes in China?" Amanda said in a surprised tone, "You're from China right, Akko?" she asked.

I quickly shook my head," No, I'm actually from Japan" I said casually.

Amanda looked even more surprised than before after I spoke. "You're from WHAT?!" she yelled.

I nodded in response thinking it wasn't such a big deal.

"By Jesus, I must be living under a rock because I had no idea Japan allowed its citizens to leave the country," Amanda said going back to looking relatively calm but still had her eyes wide open.

I went to correct her, "Oh no no no, I left without permission," I said with a prideful look.

Amanda sighed, "What if some European soldier gets word of this, mate?"

"Europeans don't know anything about Asia," Sucy said with a bit of humour in her voice, "Akko will easily pass off as a Chinese immigrate, even with her accent"

Amanda and Lotte, being the only two Europeans of the crew, looked at each other and silently agreed that Sucy was probably right.

Lotte cleared her throat, "Getting back to the topic at hand, There is a current Tax on tea, meaning that if you buy Tea you must pay the British Government a fee, and obviously Boston citizens aren't too happy about it"

I decided to change the topic, "So, we are free to do anything while we wait for the Cargo?" I asked, Lotte simply nodded as an answer.

"We could visit the Iroquois," Sucy suggested, "I bet they know of plenty of poisonous mushrooms out in the wild."

An interesting idea, but I had something else in mind, I called everyone to follow me, and I led Sucy Amanda and Lotte into the local Boston Library. Whenever we did get a break in Boston I would always go to the Boston Library, I haven't been there many times but I've been there enough that I and the caretaker know both each other's names.

I opened the door, the library was just as empty as it always is, with only the caretaker at her desk, drinking tea and reading books.

The lady smiled at me when I walked in, "Ah, bonjour Akko!" Ursula said.

Ursula was awfully bland looking compared to the other folks I've seen in the new world, while many others like to wear Tricornes, feathered hats and bright red or yellow dresses, Ursula only wore a simple white dress with a beige blouse and glasses, what Ursula lacked in style she made up for in kindness, she is one of the nicest folks I've met so far, even if she does seem a little out of it sometimes.

Lotte Sucy and Amanda walked into the Library, Lotte took off her hat to place it on the convenient hat rack, but she was the only one to do so.

"You two already know each other then aye?" Amanda guessed while looking around.

"I don't get a lot of visitors so it's nice to remember each name whenever someone returns" Ursula explained, "Akko has told me about you three, Sucy, Lotte and Amanda right?"

All three nodded at her words.

A silence fell as the crew and I began looking around the Library.

"So is nobody going to point out that she's French?" Sucy said.

"Sucy…" Lotte said.

Sucy leaned back on one of the bookshelves, "Think about it, we're in a British colony, I'm wondering how she made it this far"

"The secret is to not engage with any redcoats" Ursula taught, "I just have to fake an English accent whenever they come to collect taxes, and since I don't make many sales or buy many things it's not something I even have to deal with as much" Ursula took another sip of tea after saying that.

"Why did you have us come here again, Akko?" Lotte asked.

I put my hands together and smiled, "Isn't it obvious? There are so many books to read around here! I'm sure you've already noticed my small English book collection" I said with pride on my face.

"You seem awfully proud of owning a bunch of picture books" Sucy jokingly said.

I turned to Sucy immediately with rage, "That is NOT true!" I yelled.

"Calm down you two," Ursula said quietly raising her hands a bit, though, despite her words, Sucy and I began to fight, so Ursula spoke a second time, "Please settle this elsewhere," she said slightly louder, to no avail however as the two kept arguing and causing a ruckus, Ursula finally had enough, "TAIS-TOI!" she yelled.

Both me and Sucy froze as soon as she said that, in fact, all four of us froze, I had no idea Ursula could sound so aggressive.

She then shrank back into her chair looking very shameful, as she realized what she had just done.

"Pardon pardon!" she said waving her hands, "Pardonne-moi s'il te pla-" Ursula stopped herself as she realized she was speaking a language we could not understand.

Ursula settled down and cleared her throat, "I'm sorry to have yelled at you, I would prefer it if you would be quiet and not draw too much attention." Ursula asked of us nicely.

Me and Sucy let go of each other and dusted ourselves off, I went to say sorry but Ursula interrupted me, "Now why don't I apologize to you two by making some tea for you?"

The four of us looked at each other, we all haven't had something to drink other than water for a while now so we all welcomed this. "Tea would be lovely," I said with a smile.

Ursula got up from her chair and opened a cabinet that was behind her on the wall, I noticed something strapped on her hip, was that a...blade? And it wasn't the same swords as back on the ship, the scabbard had strange markings on it, different swirls and spirals, the scabbard was also crafted of full steel and fool's gold, as opposed to our leather crafted scabbards.

"Is that a sword?" I asked Ursula.

Ursula had already been holding a few tea bags when I said that, she panicked and quickly sat down facing in our direction, "It's nothing!" she insisted "It's nothing I swear!"

Amanda, who had also noticed the blade, stepped in, "Ah get away outta that now, I know a sword when I see one" Amanda said while leaning her hand on the desk.

Ursula sighed, and without a word, stood up and showed the sword, just like the scabbard, the blade had spirals and swirls, almost looking like forest vines, and on the hilt was a gold looking mark, it was a circle with three arrows pointing out of the circle in different directions.

The four of us marvelled at it for a bit, Ursula put the sword back in the scabbard and sat back down.

A bunch of questions flooded my mind then, "Do you know how to fight with a sword?" I asked Ursula.

The librarian put a hand on her head, "Well I know a few things but I'm not an exper-" she got cut off as I immediately jumped up with excitement, "Can you teach me?" I asked.

Ursula then went to making the tea she said she would make, "M-Maybe but I'm not sure-" she got cut off once more as I twirled around with glee, "When can I start?" I asked her once more.

Ursula was smiling but with a nervous feeling, she tried to change the subject, "So anyway, I may have tea for us all but I don't have any food, I know of a bakery not too far from here that has some great food"

I had quickly forgotten about the sword after she mentioned the bakery, I didn't realize it but I was very hungry,

"What is it called?" Lotte asked as she brought up a small piece of paper and a quill.

"Antonenko's Pub, although despite the name it is far from an alehouse" Ursula explained.

"Well ain't that misleading" Amanda pointed out.

Lotte wrote the name down on paper, and then put the quill and note under her coat. "Thank you for the suggest miss Ursula, we'll be leaving for the place soon," Lotte said.

"But we haven't even bought anything" I whined.

"Oh! That reminds me" Lotte then grabbed three large books from one of the shelves and put them on the desk, "I'll pay for this if that's okay with you"

the book had a black cover with a moon shining near the middle, the title simply read, Night Fall.

After Lotte bought her book and we drank our tea we headed back outside and headed for this Bakery that Ursula spoke of, We said our final goodbyes to Ursula when we left, with her last words to us being, "Farewell and Adieu"

"Ursula said that the bakery is on King street," Lotte said while looking at the note she wrote on earlier, eventually we saw it, Antonenko's Pub, and as Ursula mentioned, it was certainly not a pub.

The building looked old but so did almost every building in Boston did, not many people care much for fixing up their houses.

We walked through the door of the bakery, it had a few tables, a fireplace, and one gal selling everything from the desk.

The lady looked very gentle and merry, she had long pink hair, braided into two long tails with big bows at the ends, if you saw her you would've sworn she was the most cheerful person alive.

When we walked up to the desk the lady greeted us with a smile, "Hello! Hello!" the lady said with cheer, "Hello and welcome my dear seafaring lassies to my bakery!" apparently just looking at us she could tell we were sailors, she didn't seem too off-put by the fact that we all had muskets on our backs and swords on our hips.

Nah I'm only kidding, we left all our weapons back at the ship, except Amanda who somehow hasn't been arrested yet.

"So, you four are here for bread yes?" The lady said to us. Lotte nodded, and handed the lady a bag full of coins, "We'd like to buy two loaves of wheat bread"

The lady pushed back the bag of coins back towards Lotte, "No no no! You only pay once you've eaten, now wait here…" she kneeled down under the deck, and while we couldn't see her, we could assume she was grabbing the bread.

I realized now that we met the owner I could ask this question, "Why is it called Antonenko's Pub?" I asked the lady.

"This place was once owned by my grandfather, Antonenoko" The lady explained, "It used to be an Alehouse for all to drink and sorrow drown, all up until my father, Nicholai Antonenoko took the place and turned it into a bakery" The lady rose up from the desk with two clean and delicious looking bread loaves on a plate, "And now I, Jasminka Antonenoko, run the bakery, Maybe it's about time I changed the sign…" she questioned.

Lotte took the plate that was handed to her, "Thank you very much, Jasminka," she said with a smile.

"Leave payment on the desk when you are finished," Jasminka said.

The four of us sat on a table and dug in right away, we were all very hungry.

"This is so good!" I said after I took a few bites. Everyone else seemed to agree.

"Gotta admit," Amanda said while leaning back on her chair, "Even when I used to be a farmer and baker of bread I could never make anything this damn good, We need a cook like her on our ship"

Lotte laughed, "Maybe someday"

"You were a farmer, Amanda?" I said curiously.

Amanda leaned on the table towards me, "Well of course! Before I was a navy soldier I used to farm potatoes and wheat as far as the eye could see!"

Amanda looked pretty happy when she said that. "Isn't the farm life kind of boring though?" I asked.

Amanda sighed a nostalgic sigh, "It's a peaceful life, nice and simple"

I never did think of it that way… "It's just that one of the reasons I left Japan is because I had to work on my family's rice farm"

Amanda laughed, "Well the farm life ain't for everybody"

"What about you Lotte?" Amanda asked, "Did you ever live on a farm in your younger years?"

Lotte looked up while thinking about the question she was just asked, "I never worked on a farm but I did live near a few back in Finland, I had friends who worked on them, but not me, back then I much preferred the fishermen lifestyle"

"How's about you Sucy?" Lotte asked, "Did you grow up on a farm?"

Sucy was the only one who wasn't super enthusiastic on the bread, "I was a gatherer, not a farmer, though I wouldn't say the two are completely different, I would gather food and mushrooms to bring back to my home village, so you could say I was farming Nature's naturally growing farm" after Sucy said that I saw for the first time an actual smile on her face that wasn't cynical.

"You know what? I propose a toast" Amanda said while raising a glass of water,

"Kind friends and companions come join me in rhyme, come lift up your voices! In chorus with mine, come lift up your voices! All grief to refrain, for we may or might never all meet here again"

Folks that were in the bakery started to gather around, and everybody except me seemed to know the lyrics to the song that Amanda started to sing.

"_Here's a health to the company! And one to my lass, let us drink and be merry! All out of one glass, let us drink and be merry! All grief to refrain, for we may or might never all meet here again"_

Much to my surprise, Lotte brought out a tin whistle from her coat and started playing it to the tune of the song, and Sucy, somehow, somewhere, got a guitar and played it along with the tune of the song as well.

"Our ship lies at anchor, she's ready to dock, I wish her safe landing without any shock, and if ever I should meet you, by land or by sea, I will always remember your kindness to me!"

Once again Amanda proves to be the riser of spirits.

After we finished the food we gave our money and goodbyes to Jasminka and headed outside in the cold snow. Something appeared to be wrong, however, as in front of us stood hundreds of Boston citizens angrily yelling at a few British redcoats,

"What's happening?" I nervously asked,

"I'm not quite sure…" Lotte said also sounding very nervous.

"Come on now! Let's check it out" Amanda told us.

We didn't know what else to do so we followed Amanda into the crowd, as we were running I accidentally ran right into someone, Maybe those two rich ladies were right when they said I should learn how to walk… The figure and I got up to look at each other, and much to my surprise it was actually Diana! She was wearing a dark cloak but I could still recognize her face and hair colour.

"Diana?" I said in confusion,

"Oh, it's you…" Diana passive-aggressively said.

"I see with that cloak of yours that you have realized that lack of respect people here have for you," Sucy said to the rich lass.

"That was rude…" Lotte said to Sucy.

Diana dusted herself off before responding, "Rude but true, just look at this!" Diana directed us towards the crowd of Boston citizens yelling and throwing snowballs at the British. "It's absolutely absurd! Someone even rang the church bell to gather more people here"

The soldiers were being pummeled with snowballs and rocks, you could see bloody scars on the faces of the British.

"You're loyal to the British, right?" Lotte said to Diana.

"Of course, this response from the colonies is childish, it's no wonder the people of Boston are getting arrested, acting as if they didn't do acts such as this to random soldiers" Diana responded.

It was a good thing Amanda wasn't here, or else she would've started a brawl on the streets, although that was a question, where exactly was Amanda? We followed her here but we seemed to have lost her in the crowd.

...The bell was ringing, and all we did was watch.

…

"FIRE!"

It was no denying it after that loud commend came even louder gunfire.

The shouting and chanting of the crowd turned into running and screaming.

Lotte grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the area along with Sucy and Amanda who came running as well, Diana however just stood there, her face lost all pride that it once had, it looked as if her entire perception on life was turned upside down. A woman grabbed her arm and dragged her away, however.

The four of us ran right to ship as fast as we could, we didn't bother hauling in the cargo crates that were left with us, we just tried to sail away as fast as possible.

"Where are we going, Lotte?" I asked, Lotte was writing on a note, she was shaking heavily, "To Virginia! To Georgia! To Cuba! I don't know! Somewhere other than here!"

"Wait there!" A voice called to us. We looked out the ship on the dock to see a light purple-haired redcoat with a traumatized Diana Cavendish at her side.

"Who are you?" Lotte asked the stranger.

"That doesn't matter, what matters is that I am giving you the responsibility of protecting this Cavendish," The redcoat said, she then threw a bag of coins for lotte to catch. "I'll give you more if you see to it that Diana Cavendish stays safe"

"But why?" Lotte asked, "Why would you give stranger merchants this much responsibility?"

"It's a long story, but trust me when I say that I know what I'm doing" the redcoat insisted, "Please have her come along board!"

Lotte stood there for a while thinking about it. "I'll accept this responsibility" Lotte finally said.

The redcoat cheered, "Oh thank you!, May your Voyage be blessed by Beatrix herself"

Diana walked onboard without saying a word, and we sailed off to somewhere that wasn't Boston.

"So how's about that British government you're loyal to?" Amanda asked Diana mockingly.

Diana hasn't said a single word since the Boston Massacre, but after Amanda said that Diana aggressively grabbed Amanda, "Sail me to Bristol!" Diana said in a stressful tone. "I HAVE QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ANSWERED!" she yelled.

Amanda pushed her away "Jesus Christ! Listen I might suggest it to the captain if you let go of me"

Diana regained herself and let go, "I'm...I'm sorry" Diana then turned around and walked over to Lotte.

"I request that you set a course for Bristol town," Diana asked of Lotte.

"What awaits you in Bristol?" Lotte asked.

Diana looked up at the night sky and the stars of the sky before responding, "Answers, and I won't find them here, and I don't believe I'll be back for a very long time...

* * *

Historical Info.

**The Incident on King Street.**

Or as it's more famously known The Boston Massacre. So with all the taxation without representation, the people of Boston were very annoyed at the British, oftentimes would attack redcoats or anyone who was loyal to the crown, a famous case is when a lady was harassing a soldier, the soldier responded by smacking the side of her head with is mucket right in the open for everyone to see, the people were furious and a crowd formed to yell at the soldier, soon more redcoats came to support the single soldier, but the crowd didn't stay silent. The British were pelted with snowballs and rocks, the captain of the British never intended to fire that day, it was only when a random fellow yelled Fire that the soldiers shot their guns at the civilians thinking it was orders from their captain, the captain quickly demanded them to ceasefire, the redcoats looked at him confused until they saw five dead civilians in front of them. The real-life event is very different from the popular panting which depicts it as a commanded attack and the civilians as innocent bystanders that were unarmed.

**France**

Ursula is French! well, she was already but now she's even more French. Something that I think was lacking from Little Witch Academia is the national identities of the characters, they don't add to anything of the character, you could have Akko be Nigerian, Lotte be Canadian, and Sucy be El Salvadorian and nothing would change about the characters themselves, so a thing I wanted to do with this story was have the characters represent their countries culture to an extent but still have their original personalities shine, and what place is more cultural than the republic of France. France gains over 30 million tourists a year, and its no wonder as the place is very rich in culture, food, and history. The Franks is where it all started, as a small tribe in the now fallen western Roman Empire. The Franks, like many other tribes, built their new nations within the fallen Roman empire. Soon the Franks broke up their country with the left side being Modern France and the right being modern Germany. France would soon become one of the main European powers along with England and Spain, that is until the French revolution when France became...actually it was still a very powerful country. I'm sure you've heard of the French Revolution, it only happened a couple of years after the American Revolution, and it would be an interesting sequel to this story. The french revolution was a much more bloody war than that of the American Revolution, as it was the start of the famous Reign of Terror, which killed thousands of innocents, and even when it ended with the death of Robespierre, it was shortly after his death that a man known as Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and would drag most of Europe into conflict. France has a messy history, but still, if haven't visited I say you should.


	5. Chapter 5 1773, December 16th

When I first arrived at the new world the last thing I thought I'd be doing is working on a merchant ship, It's been 3 years of me and the crew sailing the Luna Nova around the 13 colonies of America, Doing most of our selling and buying in the Colony of Massachusetts, and just like any old merchant ship that does most of it's selling and buying in the Colony of Massachusetts, we were headed for Boston harbour once more.

With all the work I've been doing I had the urge to whine about something, "Why do we have to keep going to Boston for every trade deal we do!" I cried.

"You've asked that already," Sucy yelled from down below at the top deck, "And Akko, we're already docked, you can come down now,"

Realizing what Sucy said I climbed down to the top deck, Lotte was already ready to respond to what I said.

"Boston has very good trade deals, and in a set of colonies where the people would rather make tea from the ground up than buy it from the East India Trading Company, it's a very profitable business" Lotte explained.

I crossed my arms, "Why don't we go somewhere else and sell tea? It would at least be slightly more legal"

Amanda was looking at ahead at Boston town from the ship, almost like she was looking for someone, "Sometimes you have to be against the law to make a profit in this day and age" she pointed out, "The East India Trading Company is about everywhere, steeling the good deals and keeping them for the bloody crown"

Lotte then sighed, "I try to be neutral to these events but even I find the tax on tea to be unfair"

Tax is a word I've heard a lot while on this long long voyage, and I've really been understanding it as well, I love tea, and it's quite a pain to pay a large sum of my money to the British just to have tea, I've begun to understand why so many citizens of America are mad at the British, not enough to go protest on the streets with them however. There was still a part of me that thought that maybe the Brtish were in the right.

"Sucy? Are you okay about the fact that we are illegally selling tea?" I asked.

"I really don't care how we make a profit as long as we make a profit" Sucy responded.

Okay, bad example, "Amanda! You're a justice-loving gal, there's no way you are okay with this right?" I asked once more.

"We could be burning down the ships of the British to the core of the earth for tea and I wouldn't care," Amanda said casually.

Okay, even worse example, "Constanze!"

Constanze joined our crew a few months ago, we learned that she was a metalsmith who knows quite a few things on weaponry, she is now our Master Gunner who provides us with ammunition for cannons and muskets, Even though we very rarely encounter robber ships.

Constanze was a woman of very few words, and by very few words, I mean that I've never heard her speak for the entire time I've known her, so when I asked her if she was okay with our trading tactics, she simply nodded in response.

I looked down with disappointment of the people around me, "Ah sure don't be so upset about it, Akko," Amanda said with a reassuring tone "The East India Trading Company is nothing but a greedy evil corporation that tries to shun small family businesses down to hell so they can take all the gold for themselves!"

While that was reassuring and made me feel a little bit better about what we were doing, it was Amanda that was telling me it, and Amanda has a tendency to overexaggerate about the things she talks about.

"Come on now mates, we have things to do" Lotte called to all of us. Oh, right we still have a job.

The five of us walked down on the dock, as usual, to pick up the cargo for the ship, as we were walking towards the usual cargo house where the crates are often at, Lotte ran up ahead of us and stopped us in our tracks, the four of us looked at her with some confusion.

"I've decided that for the next few months we are to take a break from sailing for the winter," Lotte explained to us all.

I rejoiced after hearing that, working on the ship was hard enough during the summer spring and fall, but during the winter it was, ironically, like a burning hell, however, the new news didn't seem to amuse the others.

"Will we at least have a place to sleep?" Sucy asked.

Lotte smiled, "Yes yes, of course, the ship is always here, why don't we dine over at Antonenko's Bakery?" she suggested.

We were all roaring for more food, so we agreed and started walking over to where the bakery was.

As we were walking I noticed that a few guards were talking to the librarian Ursula right in front of her library, she looked a bit stressed, I think the bread can wait.

"Uh...how about you guys go ahead of me while I go do something else?," I said.

Whenever I say something like this it always strikes fear into Lotte's heart, "Just please don't cause any trouble!" Lotte said to me.

"Thanks!" I shouted as I ran over to see what was happening with Ursula.

As I got closer I started to hear what the guards were saying, "Ah come on now, ya barely make any sales! What good is a business if it can't even pay its own maintenance?" the redcoat said.

"Well, times have just been slow, Things will get better I swear it!" Ursula promised. The guards didn't seem convinced, "Please, we aren't folks to trust one's promises!"

"WAAAAIT!" I yelled while running towards the three, "What the bloody hell is it now?" one of the redcoats said while turning towards me.

As I got up to the guards I stopped running and took a moment to breathe "I would like to buy a book!" I struggled to say with the lack of breathing I had left.

Ursula smiled, "Let's return to this conversation another time gentlemen, I have a customer to tend to" The two redcoats groaned, "remember this meeting as a warning!" one of them said, the two then walked away as I walked inside the library with Ursula.

Ursula clapped her hands and looked at me with much happiness, "So what would you like to buy Mademoiselle?" she said in her familiar French accent. Ursula was speaking in a fake yet very convincing English accent to the two redcoats earlier, so it was a nice welcome to hear her speak in her usual way.

I grabbed many books that caught my eye and put them on the desk to buy, Ursula was shocked at how many books I put up, the stack was almost half my height.

"Are-are you sure you want this many books, can you even pay for this much?" Ursula asked.

"Of course!" I said loudly, I then reached into my pocket and brought out a bag of spending coins to give to Ursula.

"Oh thank you! Thank you a thousand times over!" Ursula said with much glee, "How may I repay you?"

"By letting me have all these books" I answered.

Ursula sat there for a moment thinking to herself, "Akko, Three years ago you asked me if I could teach you how to do battle with a sword, How would like to have that knowledge now?" she offered.

I quickly jumped up with excitement and happiness, "Really!?" I yelled.

Ursula nodded in response, "Come, follow me." she led me behind the library desk into an old empty room, there was one window on the left shining all of the light the room had, it was very dusty with cobwebs everywhere, Ursula opened the only storage box that was off to the side, and took out two swords, she handed one to me.

"Alright, I'm assuming that you have some experience since you work out on an ocean full of thieves, so why don't you show me what you already got. " Ursula said to me.

"You...want me to hit you?" I asked with confusion.

Ursula nodded, "Don't worry, I'll defend any attack you throw at me"

After hearing that I slowly and nervously unsheathed the blade and pointed it at Ursula.

Ursula got into a fighting stance with the blade in front of her, she looked as fierce as ever.

I took a deep breath and then launched a full overhead swing at Ursula, she blocked it quite easily, guided my blade to the side and took a sidewards swing at it.

My sword flew right out of my hands right into the wall, a silence fell between the both of us as I couldn't believe what I just witnessed.

"Okay, so you may not have as much experience as I originally thought," Ursula remarked, "That's fine, I'll make you into combat expert in no time!"

Regaining my confidence I grabbed the sword stuck in the wall and got ready to do battle again.

As Ursula and I were sparring she taught me a few things about how to use a sword, like how to hold it, what stance you should be in, what swings you can do and the like, but even so almost every battle we did ended with my sword getting hit right into the wall.

After about 30 minutes we heard someone come through the door, we put away the swords and walked out to see who it was, outside was a man wearing a white puffy shirt and a green vest.

"Ah, Salut!" Ursula said when she saw the man, "What brings you here?"

"I was looking for you actually," the man said, "There's a meeting I think you should be apart of"

"Do you two know each other?" I interrupted.

"Oh! Pardon my manners!" Ursula said, "Akko, meet Paul Revere, Paul Revere, meet Atsuko Kagari"

Paul reached his hand out to me, "A pleasure to meet you miss Kagari"

I nodded and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too!"

"Right then! Shall we be on our way?" Paul said to Ursula, she nodded and turned to me.

"If you ever want combat lessons again I'm always willing," Ursula said.

The three of us walked outside, Ursula locked the door to the library and with Paul Revere walked towards a small crowd of folks near the bay, Now it was time for me to find my shipmates.

I ran around Boston to find Antonenko's Bakery, and there it was in its usual spot on king street,

Antonenko's Bakery, the new sign in front of it said. I walked in to hear Music and saw men and women dancing around, and no surprise Amanda was in the middle with a fiddle.

"_No more boys no more! Go to sea no more, twas then that I wished that I was dead and could go to sea no more" _They all sang their hearts out.

Living with her for three years I've learned that Amanda's the type of gal who can rally up any group of people no matter where they are from or what they are feeling and get them all to rove and ramble all around with music.

"Ay, Akko!" Amanda called out to me, "Come on out here! Grab a drink or two and join the chorus!" she cheered.

With a smile already on my face I walked in the bakery and sat down with Lotte Sucy and Constanze, Both Lotte and Sucy were already well within the music, Lotte was playing along the tone with a tin whistle while Sucy was playing the Guitar, this certainly isn't the first time I've seen them play, however.

Although it is the first time I've seen Constanze play this weird guitar piano hybrid that when turning a crank on it produced music that sounded like a mixture of a violin and an accordion, and yet it sounded amazing.

When the final verse was sung everyone around started cheering, clapping their hands, hugging others and whistled high.

After everyone sat back down at their tables us five started laughing. "What took ya so long Akko?" Amanda asked, "Look here we saved a pint for ya," she said as she handed me a glass mug filled with Ale.

"I don't drink, thanks," I said as I pushed away the mug.

"Are ya sure? It's a homemade recipe made by Jasminka herself!" Amanda explained. Still, I shook my head.

Jasminka behind the counter grabbed a small bottle of something and walked to our table, "If you want, you can try this alcoholic free Cider, Akko" She suggested. "I'll give it to you absolutely free!" she said as she handed me the bottle.

I gleamed at the bottle, "Really!? For free?!" I asked, Jasminka simply nodded in response.

"Oh thank you so much Jasminka!" I said, She gave a salute and headed back to the desk.

We spent most of the day at the bakery chatting and spending our hard-earned pay, it was all great fun but something loomed in my mind as the day went on, What was that meeting that Ursula went to?

Not far from the bakery was a church, and it was the meeting spot for a specific group of people.

Croix Meridies was making her towards the pub under the now dark night sky, she opened the door to the meeting house and walked over to a large table with quite a few people.

"Ah, so you finally decided to show yourself," Paul Revere said in a sarcastic tone.

"I was held up by redcoats trying to take away my home," Croix said as she took a seat at the table.

"Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce to you, Croix Meridies, A prime engineer in our time, and a good friend of Chariot du Nord," Paul said to everyone at the table.

"Chariot? Chariot?!" A man on the table cheered, "Pardon my manners" The man then shook Croix's hand, "The name is Samuel Adams"

"Well met," Croix said.

"So tell me Croix, as a previous friend of Chariot, what are you to say about her disappearance 13 years ago?" Samuel asked.

Croix thought for a moment about that question, she took a glance at Ursula who had been sitting at the table with the group.

"13 years ago I witnessed Chariot du Nord being hanged by the British" Croix revealed.

All the men at the table gasped at Croix's words, Paul sighed, "Chariot was a powerful warrior, and a lady of justice, I'm sure in another universe she would've been a proud member of the Sons of Liberty"

"She is no longer with us now, but that should not stop our plans, Ladies and Gentlemen! Raise your voices" Samual said.

"_No Taxation without representation!" _Everyone at the table cried.

"We are the Sons and Daughters of Liberty," Paul said, "Now come, let us get prepared.

After a long day at the bakery, I and the rest of the crew walked outside and headed back to the ship to sleep, Something was happening at the harbour, as a group of people were all huddled together cheering.

"What's going on!?" I asked.

"I...I don't know" Lotte said also in confusion.

"Come on! Let's go check it out!" Amanda said in a cheerful tone.

Amanda then ran ahead of us, "Wait! Wait!" We yelled at her, but soon we had to follow behind her, Eventually, we all ended up within the crowd, and before us, we saw a bunch of folks board three British merchant ships.

"They seem to be those native folks out west," Amanda guessed.

"They are not native Americans," Sucy angrily said. "They're just dressed as people from the Mohawk tribe."

The people on the boats started to throw small crates on the ship into the harbour, one by one, everyone in the crowd started cheering while I sat there rather confused, "What is happening!?" I yelled.

"The tea!" Amanda yelled, "Those lads are throwing all the tea into the harbour!"

"I'm guessing that it's a protest against the tax on tea" Lotte explained.

Suddenly we all heard a bunch of people yelling from behind the crowd, we turned around to see an army of redcoats running towards the ships to try and stop the event, a few of the men throwing tea stopped and picked up rifles and swords to hold them off, a fight broke out between the two sides, and in front of us, a British soldier knocked the weapon out of a colonist's hands, and stabbed him with a bayonet.

I felt like throwing up after I saw that.

The soldier was about to run onto the ship to stop the tea event, but much to my surprise Amanda pulled out her sword and stabbed the redcoat all the way through his chest.

Both I and Lotte were heavily shocked at what we just saw, so much so that we fainted and fell right on the ground.

Although Sucy, Constanze and Amanda didn't seem to care and Amanda ran towards the other redcoats along with the colonists.

As Amanda was running towards the redcoats, she stopped dead in her tracks when a sword landed on her arm, she turned to see who was holding the sword, the figure then pointed the blade at Amanda's face when she saw who it was.

"You've been gone for three years, why did you return?" Amanda said to Diana.

"I told you before, I had questions that needed to be answered," Diana explained.

Diana was now wearing a redcoat with a tricorne hat, and she was pointing a sword at Amanda's neck.

"So even after you saw the cruel British Murder innocents at King street three years ago you still remain loyal to the crown?" Amanda said as she backed away from the blade and pointed her own sword at Diana.

"That event was an accident caused by a random bloke screaming near the soldiers, it wasn't even a commended attack," Diana remarked.

Amanda shook her head, "It was no accident, The soldiers shot without hesitation, and now they steal people's homes and take all their money, You English Brits wave your bloody Union Jack for all that it's worth." Amanda then took a swing at Diana who managed to block it, thus starting a sword duel between the two.

When me and Lotte finally got up we immediately saw Amanda and Diana fighting with swords, I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Both Croix and Ursula were on the merchant ships throwing tea into the harbour, However, Ursula stopped when she saw the battle between the Irish Amanda and the British Diana.

Ursula cried "Croix! Come over here the Cavendish is-"

"Doing fine," Croix interrupted "She was taught well."

Amanda wasn't looking very good on her end, she was losing to Diana, I didn't want to do it, but I grabbed the sword from the body of the redcoat and I ran towards Diana at full speed ready to stab her.

"Akko! Wait!" Lotte cried out to me.

I didn't listen however, I kept running, suddenly a crate next to me exploded, I was shocked and I dropped the sword and tripped onto the ground.

Croix on the ship was holding a musket, she just took a shot, "Why did you disturb my shot?" Croix asked Ursula.

"You were about to shoot that girl!" Ursula said.

Croix put the gun on the ground, "That girl was about to stab Diana Cavendish in the back!" she argued.

"She was doing it to save her friend!" Ursula argued back, "You didn't have to shoot her!"

Croix crossed her arms, "While that may be rather sweet I wasn't just going to let the descendant of Beatrix get killed by some commoner"

"And what makes the Cavendish's life better than the commoner's life?!" Ursula fiercely said, "She may be a descendant of one of the Nine Ould Witches but she's just that, a descendant, that commoner has just as much of a chance to greatness as that Cavendish does!"

"But does the commoner girl has a chance to magical greatness?" Croix asked.

Ursula calmed down for a moment, "Maybe, Who knows, maybe she will be the one to find and utilize the Grand Triskelion"

Sucy, Lotte and Constanze ran over to see if I was okay, as I got up we were all distracted by a loud scream.

Diana sliced a deep cut into Amanda's arm, she dropped her weapon and fell down on her knees.

"Amanda no!" I yelled out, I tried to run over there but Lotte and Sucy prevented me from doing so.

Diana pointed her sword at Amanda while she was in pain. "I'm so sorry I had to do this to you," Diana said.

"Just kill me," Amanda said, "My death will do nothing to hurt the future of the Colonies"

Diana after a while of standing there, doing nothing, put her sword in its scabbard and ran away, leaving Amanda alive.

Me, Lotte, Sucy and Constanze ran over quickly to see if Amanda was okay, she had a deep sword cut in her arm, and blood was pouring out of it. "We must take her to the ship, now!" Lotte yelled.

We carried Amanda back to the Luna Nova as fast as we could, Sucy told us that she knew of some mushroom recipe that could heal Amanda.

I was scared that night, not just for Amanda but also about the Boston Tea Party, I was afraid that this would lead to something even bigger.

* * *

Historical Info.

**Paul Revere **

The first real historical figure shows his face, Pual Revere was a silversmith who worked his trade in Boston, after the 7 years war, his trade began to suffer, and even more so after the stamp act in 1765, this is thought to be one of the reasons Revere got his revolutionary ideas, along with him being close friends with early American patriots, such as the Royal Nine. When Revere's father died in 1754 he was too young to take up the family trade, and two years later he enlisted into the provincial army in the 7 years war to get a consistent pay, which at the time, was hard to find in Boston, he didn't stay long and returned to Boston to continue his trade. Revere is a famous face in the American Revolution, he is part of many events which will no doubt appear in this story. Also if any of the historical figures in this story appear racist or sexist, that's because they were. Hopefully, your modern views won't ruin these important figures.

**The Sons of Liberty**

The Sons of Liberty were a group of patriots that was founded in august of 1765 in Boston, this was to combat against the Stamp Act of 1765, which was an act in which Britain taxed the American colonies without their consent. The Sons of Liberty took part in many protests, one of which being the Boston Tea Party in this story, However some protests were much more violent, sometimes burning down homes of British royalists. The members of the Sons of Liberty came and went as the revolution progressed, some notable names would be, Samual Adams, Paul Revere, Benjamin Church, John Hancock and Benedict Arnold, that is just a few who were at one point part of the Sons of Liberty.

**The Boston Tea Party**

"No taxation without representation!" is the famous saying that American patriot yelled during protests such as this one. After the 7 Years War, Britain was broke and needed money, in 1765, England brought in the Stamp Act, which had any piece of paper stamped. The colonists revolt not too long after this, and Britain was forced to repeal the tax. Britain was still in debt, so they introduced the Townshend act, which taxed goods, this led to Colonists boycotting British goods which forced Britain to repeal the tax again, except for one, the tax on tea. At the time that this was all happening, Americans loved their tea, so they were still not happy at the tax that was upon it, and so on 1773, The Sons of Liberty hopped on board British merchant ships dressed up as Native Americans to hide their identity and threw 342 chests of tea into the harbour.


	6. Chapter 6 1774, September 4th

Things were brewing in Boston town, we had to stop going to the Colony of Massachusetts because of the increase in occupation, England recently sent a legion of redcoats to the Colony causing it to be under complete watch by the English, The East India Trading Company was now the main source of materials for people to buy from, we no longer could smuggle tea there like we used to.

The Librarian Ursula was packing her things and putting them into a carriage when suddenly someone spoke to her, "Where do you plan on going?" the voice said.

Ursula jumped back in shock as she did not expect someone to sneak up and talk to her, "Croix! You surprised me" she said while regaining from the small shock, "I plan on leaving to the City of Philadelphia" she explained.

Croix crossed her arms with an angered look, "And leave your mission as a Witch?" she said to the Librarian.

Ursula started putting more things in her carriage before speaking, "Our mission is not to protect the Cavendish, it is to protect all the People of America from engaging in a suicide mission"

Croix sighed, "My dear Chariot, tensions are going nothing but up, the people will have their war, we must protect the one who will find the Grand Triskelion, we tried are go at a peaceful protest, and all it did was lock Boston into a cell" she argued.

"Peace can still be achieved!" Ursula loudly said, "I am leaving to Philadelphia for a final chance of it, Plus, ever since Akko and her mates stopped coming here I've been out of business, Philadelphia is nice free place to settle"

"You're quite fond of that commoner girl aren't you?" Croix remarked.

Ursula smiled, "I see something in her that I don't see in a lot of people, she may be no witch, but I feel that she's important to the future of Magic"

"Does she know of your little secret?" Croix asked raising an eyebrow.

Ursula froze for a second, she then smiled, "As far as I'm concerned, there are only two people in the new world other than myself who know of that secret," Ursula finally hauled in the final few crates into the carriage after speaking.

Croix shook her head in disapproval, "I can't stop you, the only thing I can do is bid you a safe journey" she said giving Ursula a smile, "I am to remain here, after all, Diana still has much to learn,"

Ursula giggled at that, "Under your teachings, we might as well not protect her"

An interesting conversation between two interesting folks, an interesting conversation that happened days before I and the crew even set a course for New Jersey, Ursula was already far on the trail from Boston heading for Philadelphia

A fine new day has arrived, the sun was shining bright all over the land, and I was asleep, sleeping under a small area of shade, I woke up to birds chirping and leaves blowing, I opened my eyes a little bit to see where was I, above me was a bright pink colour, I stood up from the grass where I was laying, I looked up to see a cherry blossom tree with some of its leaves falling onto the ground gracefully, I looked around to see the surrounding area, before me I viewed a large beautiful field with crops on the flat surface and large mountains in the distance, I saw a familiar small wooden hut not too far away from the place I was resting, next to it was a watermill gathering energy from a small river.

"Akko! Akko!" I heard someone call out, the voice to me was...familiar, it was a voice I had not heard in quite some time.

"Akko! Akko!" it cried out again.

"M-Mother?" I said to myself, and then I finally realized where I was.

"Mother!" I cried out, I then ran towards where I heard the voice, but without warning, I ran into some sort of invisible wall, I fell over landing on the back of my head on the floor, the calm noises of birds chirping and the wind blowing faded, and all I heard was violent rushing water along with heavy rain, wood creaking, and a singing voice.

"_Weigh hey and up she rises! Early in the morning!" _the voices sang.

I opened my eyes and saw the wooden interior of a ship, I was still in the Luna Nova, The ship that I've been sailing on for 4 years.

"Akko! Akko!" a voice called out to me, but it wasn't the same voice, in fact, it was a voice I heard regularly, I quickly ran up to the top deck of the ship to see what was going on, much to my surprise the ship was in a storm, Lotte and the rest of the crew were struggling to keep the ship together.

"Aye Akko!" Amanda called out to me, "Why don't you give us a hand before the ship falls apart?" she said while pulling on a rope.

Just as I heard down in the main deck, the rains were falling hard, I was already soaking wet as if I just jumped into the ocean, and it wasn't all that hard to slip on the deck boards with the all the water and the rocking ship.

"Akko! Lay aloft and tie up the foresails!" Lotte yelled to me trying to keep the rain out of her face, "And Sucy, Lay aloft and tie the Mizzardsails!" She was trying to keep control of the helm, it looked as if she was going to fly off the ship at any moment.

"Aye!" Both me and Sucy said at the same time and went to do the job we were tasked with.

I tried to climb up to the foremast, but with the ship rocking and heavy rain, I was afraid that I was going to fall into the ocean while climbing. When I got onto the mast, Amanda helped tug up the sail from down below, while we were working a question came to my mind.

"Where are we to sail towards?!" I called out to Amanda.

"We're outward bound for New Jersey!" Amanda yelled back.

Since very recently, we've decided to stop going to ould Boston town for trade deals, instead, we've gone over to some of the other colonies, which is something I suppose I asked for, The tea throwing event at Boston last year caused some problems for us, The colony of Massachusetts is now under direct rule of Great Britain, so we can no longer do our illegal tea selling there.

"How much longer until we arrive?!" I asked while hanging on to the mast for dear life.

"When we first started the voyage it was a smooth 2 hours!" Amanda said while trying to keep a good balance on the deck, "But with this storm, it'll be an extra 5 hours or so until we even see the land!"

I groaned, but I'm not lying when I say that this isn't the first time we've encountered a deadly storm out on the ocean.

After we sailed a very long and rainy 5-hour trip, the storm finally calmed down and we reached our destination, The Colony of New Jersey, I'm not sure of the whereabouts of Ould Jersey but this was the new (and presumably improved) Jersey.

We docked up at not a city but a heavily wooded area, with only a few houses far away from each other, it reminded me of the first time I saw the Luna Nova all those years ago, it was a similar area but different, the leaves of the trees had bright oranges and yellows across the bay and into the forest, it was still very early in the morning but all that water that was splashed on me woke me up.

When we all stepped down on the quay, Lotte quickly walked over to a stable nearby, "Why are we here again?" I asked.

"Lotte is grabbing a carriage for us to ride in" Sucy explained, "We plan to ride all the way to Philadelphia in Pennsylvania"

"It might be a welcome break from all the sailing we usually do" Amanda pointed out.

The Colony of Pennsylvania, I've certainly heard of it, but I've never been to the place, all of our tradings takes place on the coastline, aside from a few rivers Pennsylvania was out of the question when asking where we would sail to next, so venturing to a new colony sounding very exciting!

"What's in Pennsylvania?" I asked still wondering why we were venturing there in the first place.

"Cities to trade in that isn't Boston" Lotte interrupted. "Which is something you've wanted from what I've gathered."

Lotte was now riding a small carriage with one horse pulling it, and one boxcar attached to the back, I still don't understand where Lotte finds all these things.

She hopped off the carriage and faced me and the rest of the crew, "Well we have a few cargo crates to haul in so let us get to it!" she said cheerfully, I was less than cheerful after hearing that, however.

After we carried all the crates into the storage area I noticed how nice it looked inside, the boxcar was covered in a white sheet, and it felt quite smooth, it was not only where all the crates were but also were me, Sucy, Amanda and Constance were to rest in while Lotte guided the carriage along the trail.

Once we were all ready Amanda gave the word, "Led the way captain!" she said leaning out of the boxcar opening, the carriage suddenly moved without me expecting it, and it knocked me to the side a bit, but nonetheless, we were on our merry way, Amanda took a deep breath, "The great forests of The New World, so quiet and serene" she remarked leaning on the boxcar sheet.

Sucy was using a metal tool to pry one the crates open meanwhile, and after she did so she rummaged through it a bit before grabbing and bringing out a Guitar, at this point, I'm not even surprised, playing the guitar was one of the few hobbies of Sucy that was normal, out of the mushroom collecting and position making, the fact that she can apparently make a fully functioning acoustic guitar appear out of thin air at any given moment and play it rather well is pretty cool.

"Sucy, you're from Spain, correct?" I questioned.

Sucy was playing a quiet and beautiful melody up until I said that, she stopped playing abruptly with the last note being a very ill sounding, Sucy raised her head to look at me, she had an ominous look, she looked as if she was about to kill me.

"I come from a Spanish colony" she ominously said.

I backed away slightly feeling very nervous, "Did...I say something?"

Amanda sighed, "Sucy is from the Philippines," she explained to me, "A beautiful and free land that suffered the same fate as Ireland did."

"You're very patriotic aren't you Amanda," I said to the free-loving spirit. "I still don't really understand what's the big deal."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Amanda said with slight saddening tone. "You see, when I was young I read of ancient free men, of Greece and Rome who bravely stood against the world's challenges, and since then I always prayed that Ireland long a province be a nation once again, it's been so many years of us being walked all over by the loving English feet, I've almost lost hope…"

A question that's been on my mind for a while is the question on how Ireland is now under British power, That curiosity overshadowed when I heard how discouraged Amanda sounded when speaking about this, "You can't give up!" I yelled to her, "Ireland may very well be a nation again! You can't lose hope now!" I had a great feeling of justice then, although Amanda didn't seem that impressed.

"800 years" Amanda said in a low tone, "800 years of heroes rising to stand against the force of England, all of which fought for a united country, and all ended with them being brutally killed, decapitated, and had their heads paraded around the towns" She said with a trembling fist, I could almost see tears in her eyes.

After hearing that my sense of justice faded, and leaned back on the box sheet looking depressed at the ground, I was far from speaking, I stood up again with another point to make, "Perhaps you could try a diplomatic approach" I suggested, "Maybe this could be resolved without bloodshed of any kind!" I thought it was a good idea, and my eyes brightened up again with hope.

Amanda slammed her fist on one of the crates, "England doesn't know what diplomacy means!" she fiercely said, "You either kneel in front of the crown, or try and survive it's gunshots" Amanda managed to calm down, she took off her tricorne hat and leaned on the box sheet taking a deep breath, "I hope that someday England will be a place of better quality, giving its colonies the freedom it deserves, but I don't think that's a timeline I am to live in"

Sucy, looking quite distressed after I reminded her about the Philippines being a Spanish colony, calmed down a bit, and smiled a reassuring smile, "These things take time, a free Ireland may not be in your timeline, but if the world sees a better future, perhaps your great-grandchild will,"

Amanda chuckled, "That's something to look forward to" Amanda than opened up run of crates and pulled out a bottle of rum, she grabbed a few small glasses from another crate and poured a small bit of rum in every glass, she handed us a glass and raised her own towards the sky, "For the future of our people!" She cheered.

"Aye!" both me and Sucy cheered with Constanze enthusiastically nodding, the three of us raised our glasses and clinked them with Amanda's before drinking, Although only Amanda and Sucy drank the shot, Constanze took out a small bottle within her vest and poured the shot in it, I on the other hand wasn't drinking and have never drank any alcohol, now that I think of it, having never actually drunk alcohol I wondered what it was actually, I was only 16 when I reached the new world and discovered more of it, I'm in my 20s now, I wonder what it tastes like.

With curiosity I took the shot, it tasted strange, but I felt alright, at least that's what I thought until I started losing all rationalism and fell on the ground, "See? I told you she would lose it after a single shot" Sucy said while I was mindlessly giggling on the floor of the carriage.

"This is going to be a long road to Philadelphia," Amanda said while leaning back on the box sheet with her hands behind her head.

"You guys aren't drinking any of the rum are you?" Lotte's muffled voice said to us outside of the box.

Amanda groaned, "This is going to be a long road to Philadelphia alright"

I fell fast asleep.

"Akko? Akko?" a voice called out to me, "Are you okay?" I opened my eyes a bit to see Lotte, Amanda and Sucy looking down at me.

I sat up from where I was laying down, still tired and not thinking well I looked around the surrounding area, I was still in the moving carriage, questions popped into my head as I gained conscience, "W-Where's Constanze?" I asked while rubbing my eyes "Whos riding the carriage!" I jumped up saying.

"Wow, both interesting questions, It's almost like Constanze is leading the carriage," Sucy Sarcastically said.

Amanda laughed, "Aw come on Sucy, tell me you wouldn't be lacking common sense after a long drunken nap?"

"I don't think I've ever been that drunk," Sucy said, "I don't think it's possible for anyone besides Akko to pass out for four hours because of rum" Sucy then turned her head towards me with her blank yet somehow judgemental look.

Amanda then leaned in towards Sucy, "Mate, you've yet to see the lads back in Limerick"

I jumped up on my feet in disbelief, "FOUR HOURS?!" I yelled out.

"It would probably be best if you keep your voice down, Akko," Lotte said while laughing nervously.

"What happened!?" I asked still in shock.

"You took a sip of rum and passed out" Amanda explained with an amused look on her face.

Sucy turned her head back up at the sky "Sometimes I wonder if Akko will stay in that weak body for the rest of her life"

I looked at Sucy with an angry look "I'm right here!" I yelled.

Sucy turned her head back to me, "I know. If a single shot of rum can knock you out just think of what the mushrooms could do," Sucy than laughed a very sinister laugh, she pulled out a notebook from her vest and started jotting down something.

I sat down on a crate in the carriage with crossed arms, "Hmph! In my defence, the pathway of a sailor has little sleep on it." I explained, when on the sailing trips I rarely got any sleep or at least feels like it, both day and night we work.

"Says the one who sleeps in most of the time," Amanda pointed out.

I groaned, "Lotte?" I began to ask, "How long till we reach our destination?"

Lotte stopped for a moment to think about it, "We aren't going that fast, so I would guess that we are to arrive there by morning" she said with a hand on her chin.

"I could walk faster than this speed!" I whined

Our conversation was interrupted by a scream off in the distance along with a few gunshots, the carriage halted to a stop, the three of us ran out of the box to see what was happening, Lotte ran up to Constanze, "What's going on?" she nervously asked, Constanze pointed ahead of her towards a wreck of a carriage similar to ours, the box sheet was torn off and all but one of the crates were destroyed, there were no horses implying that they ran away, and there was one woman staring at it all.

I gasped at the sight, "Hey! Are you alright?!" I cried to the woman as I ran towards the wreck.

"Come on! Let's help her out!" Amanda cried as she ran after me, Lotte sighed and ran over as well, Constanze hopped off the carriage to follow us, and Sucy walked slowly behind us all, Once I got closer that lady looked familiar, "Jasminka?" I said to myself, and I wasn't mistaken, as I got over there I saw the baker Jasminka looking at the many destroyed and missing crates of the wreck, "Jasminka!" I cried out grabbing her attention, she turned to me and greeted me with a smile.

We both hugged each other when I got close, and everyone else managed to catch up, they all had a smile on their face for this unexpected event, "Well if isn't my favourite sailor lassies" she said with her cheery voice.

"Jasminka!" Amanda laughed, "What a blessing it is to see ya here," she said as she shook Jasminka's hand.

"What happened to your carriage?" Lotte distressingly said.

Jasminka sighed, "Robbers took everything I had and broke the rest" she explained.

Sucy who this entire time had been walking slowly behind us finally caught up, "You don't seem that broken up about it," She pointed out.

Jasminka smiled, "These things happen! Some of my gear was destroyed and stolen, but not all of it, I'm alive and still have all the chance as ever to bounce back"

"You're so positive," Lotte said to the Baker.

Jasminka chuckled, "Bakeries are filled with positivity! It rubs off on you, why waste time feeling down about something when you can use that time to fix that problem you're feeling down about"

"Why don't we help you with that?" Lotte suggested, "If you want you can hop onboard our carriage and we can carry you the rest of the way," she offered.

Jasminka's face brightened up even more than before, "Really?" she said to Lotte, "Oh thank you so much!" Jasminka then picked up the only remaining crate and we all walked back to our carriage, Jasminka along with her single crate hopped on board.

"Since this appears to be a path of robbers," Amanda said while grabbing a musket, "Why don't I ride?" she suggested.

Although hesitantly, Lotte agreed and let Amanda lead us on the path with a gun on her side.

"Why were you leaving your bakery anyway?" Lotte asked Jasminka.

"I was forced out of my bakery by the redcoats," Jasminka explained, "So I packed everything up and left for New Jersey on a merchant ship going there,"

"And you're heading for Philadelphia just like us right?" I asked. Jasminka nodded in response.

How amazing, I thought that a magical force must be watching us, as I saw the autumn leaves swirl and fly behind us, and that we found an old friend to bring along with us, it made the long road to Philadelphia feel all the greater.

* * *

Historical Info.

**New Jersey.**

In 1492, the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, discovered the Americas for the rest of the world, he wasn't the first European to set foot in the land and he was far from the first human who set foot there, but he was the one that began the European colonization of North, Central and South America. In 1624, the Dutch established their own colony which they creatively named, "New Netherlands" and enjoyed a few years as a Dutch American Colony until 1664, when a fleet of British Naval ships threaten to attack the colony unless they give the land to England, which they did. England split New Netherlands in two, creating what is now known as New York and New Jersey. New Jersey is sometimes known as the Crossroads of The Revolution because many major battles were fought in the colony during the American Revolution, except to see them soon.


	7. Chapter 7 1774, September 5th

The day had passed and came with it nightfall, Lotte elected to take a break in the morning and set up a fire before we reach the old town of Philadelphia, we all, of course, agreed because sitting inside a wooden carriage on uneven terrain can do bad things to your back, it was when I was staring at the fire that I wondered, we were forced to leave Boston because of the British occupation, I wondered how other businesses fared, on the trail yesterday we found Jasminka making her way to Pennsylvania as well, and it was also because she lost her job in Boston, I wondered, and worried, how the librarian Ursula was doing.

Ursula was doing just fine, I didn't know that at the time, however, she made a long journey from Boston Town to Philadelphia quite quickly and with all of her books and gear along with her safely, "Just in time" she said to herself

She was exhausted, she may have made it to the city but she still needed to set up a shop somewhere, although the first thing she was going to do was find an inn nearby, she was far too tired to find and buy a shop, she was also looking for a specific person, she reached into her carriage and pulled out a map, she hopped off her carriage to look at it a bit, walking a bit forward however and she tripped on a foot and fell on the ground, Ursula quickly got up apologizing, "Pardon! Pardon!" she cried as she picked up her map, She stopped herself saying that as she was picking up her glasses, "Ah! I mean, sorry! Sorry!" she corrected herself.

When Ursula finally got her glasses on she looked up at the figure she tripped over, she halted her words and stood up straight, the map she was holding slowly fell out of her hand as she found out who she was looking at, in front of her was not a redcoat like she feared but instead a familiar kind-looking man, the man looked as Ursula in the same way Ursula looked at him, a look of disbelief, a look of nostalgia.

"Chariot?" the man said softly.

"George?" Ursula said in a similar tone.

The man backed away a bit, "Chariot Du Nord!" he cried as he welcomed Ursula with open arms, the two closed in and hugged each other while laughing, "It's been so long, my friend!" the man said as the two parted, "Come come! Follow me!"

Ursula followed the man as he led her across the town, the two were gleefully laughing and chatting, "May I ask, where is Croix?" George pondered.

"She's back in Boston taking care of the Cavendish," Ursula explained.

"Ah! Cavendish" George fiercely said "Descendent of...Caesar right?" he asked.

Ursula shook her head, "Descendent of Beatrix"

George chuckled to himself, "To a simple non-magic man like myself all this Witch history blurs in with human history" George stopped for a moment from walking and changed from looking cheerful to looking very serious, "It's a shame, Folks these days are ruthless, the deaths of Witches may have gone down but only because they hide from the rest of the world," George looked at the now worried Ursula, "Last time I saw you was 10 years ago, you left back to your Magical land, a place of freedom, and safety" George landed a hand on Ursula's shoulder, "My dear Ursula Callistus, why have you come here?" he asked.

Ursula landed her hand on George's, she knew that he was serious as he called her by that name instead of Chariot, "It's complicated" she said with a small smile.

George lifted his hand from Ursula, "You are a Witch! The people here would burn you at the stake just at the slightest suspicion that you are a Witch, and to add to that you are French, it's a wonder that the redcoats haven't hung you yet at the gallows" George turned his back to Ursula and stared at the daylight sky with his hands behind his back, "And worse to bear, war is ever approaching, and the last thing I want is for an old friend to die because of it"

Ursula smiled a bright smile "That's the reason I came to Philadelphia, I think peace can be achieved"

During the times of fall, the leaves fall from the trees in great numbers, very slowly and very gracefully, that wasn't the case for one tree however as I whacked the side of it with a stick and pile of leaves fell right on me and buried me, as I jumped out I heard someone call out to me, "Hey Akko, is there a reason you're doing that?" Amanda asked by the fire.

I sighed, "I'm trying to l practice the sword techniques that Ursula taught me"

"Why use a stick?" Amanda asked, "We have plenty of swords with much better balance"

"Using a stick makes it easier to not hurt myself," I explained

Sucy laughed "not very well obviously," she said as she pointed at the many scratches and leaves on my body.

I groaned and shook all the leaves and branches out of my hair and clothes, I then stepped out of the leaf pile and walked towards the fire that Lotte set up, Jasminka was cheerfully cooking food in a pot above the fire, Constanze was forging a small piece of steel, I sat on a stump up at the fire and stared at it with a tired look.

"We're not too far from the city, once the food is finished we'll head out and arrive there presumably in an hour or so," Lotte explained.

"What are we eating anyway?" I asked while putting my cold hands near the fire.

"Rabbit stew" Amanda bluntly said, "I and Sucy hunted for the game earlier this morning"

So that was the gunshots I heard while I was asleep, I've never tried rabbit stew but it didn't sound particularly good, "I'll skip breakfast thank you"

"Well, ya gotta have a lot of energy if you wanna be working on the trail," Amanda told me as she rummaged through the carriage, she brought out a single apple, "Catch!" she yelled as she threw the apple towards me, "You're okay with it right?" Amanda asked Lotte.

"I'll allow it once and only this once," Lotte responded.

After breakfast, it was off to Philadelphia, I and the crew jumped into the carriage with Lotte riding it, I was awfully tired at the time so I just fell asleep during the ride.

"Akko?" a voice quietly spoke to me, I opened my eyes to hear crowds of people, and the carriage was no longer rolling on soft dirt but stone bricks, the voice belonged to Jasminka who smiled brightly when she saw me awake, "We're here" she said softly, I tilted my head in confusion and looked out the carriage, I saw a vast city of stone with streets filled with people, I was overwhelmed with excitement! A stone city that wasn't Boston!

The carriage halted to a stop, Amanda yawned, "Alright back to work" she said as she stood up from the crates.

I hopped out of the carriage to fully embrace the new city, I twirled around and raised my arms, so many people and so many opportunities.

As everyone else in the crew was going outside with me I saw someone in the distance, Much to my surprise it was the librarian Ursula talking with a man, I was even more excited, so I straightened my hat and ran towards the two.

"You weren't part of the Boston Tea party were you?" George asked Ursula with a hand on his chin.

Ursula suddenly got flashbacks of the event she partook in a year ago, "Uhhh...no not at all!" she nervously said.

George chuckled a bit, "I thought not, Those Bostonians are mad! It's almost like they were asking to be held down by the-" George was quickly interrupted as I cried out towards the two.

"Ursula!" I yelled as I ran, with the librarian herself looking even more nervous at the sight of me, I got up to the two and stopped to regain my strength, I then looked up at Ursula with a smile! "You're here too?" I cheerfully said.

"Umm...yeah…" Ursula awkwardly said.

George smiled at me and then turned to Ursula "Is this a child of yours?" he asked.

Ursula quickly shook her head, "Oh no no no, she is but a young friend I met along the way"

"Oh, and here I thought you dropped all danger and decided to settle down," George said as he put his hands behind his back.

"Who are you?" I asked the man who I had never seen before.

"George Washington," the man said as he handed out his hand to me.

I hesitated but I took his hand and shook it, "Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko!" I said to him.

"Well met, miss Kagari, I trust you are a friend to liberty," George said to me.

I was expecting Lotte to come over and drag me away but she and everyone else of the crew seemed rather calm, I guess they've gotten used to my wandering tendencies.

"Whos that white-haired lad by Akko?" Amanda asked while leaning on the carriage.

Lotte, after writing a few notes on paper, looked at what Amanda was referring to, "I believe that's the statesman of Virginia, although it's hard to make out" she said as she squinted her eyes.

Amanda beamed after she heard what Lotte said, "Washington?" she laughed, "This is an opportunity I just can't miss!" she said as she started walking towards us three, although the Lotte quickly grabbed her vest.

"I'm not letting you lead us into another hurricane!" Lotte cried trying to prevent Amanda from meeting George.

While I and George greeted each other, another voice called out to us, "Mister Washington" the voice said.

George went and faced another man, he was wearing a similar black suit as him, "Ah, Mister Adams sir" he said to the man.

"The congress is waiting for you," the man said

"Give my most sincere apologies to the men, I'll follow quickly behind you as I have a few more words to say" George responded.

The man smiled a slight bit as he turned away, "I suppose we wouldn't be much without our friends" the man then walked away.

George turned back to me and Ursula "I assure you the delegates all agree with you that peace can be achieved, and I promise that I and the rest of the congress will try as hard as we can to not engage in a war with England" he said to the librarian "And please, stay safe my friend" George then walked off in the same direction as the man who spoke to him before.

"What was that all about?" I asked Ursula.

The smiling librarian turned to me, "Washington and other men from across the colonies are meeting up in the Carpenter's Hall" she explained to me, "They are discussing on how they are to deal with the current tax problem, they will inform the king of their thoughts and the king shall lift the taxes and give the colonies a representative.

I didn't know what half of those words meant but it sure sounded good.

While I and Ursula were talking to each other, I heard the slight echo of Amanda and Lotte arguing, "You're Finnish aren't ya?" Amanda said to the Skipper, "There's got to be some Viking blood in there that is just roaring to go on an adventure!" she cheerfully said.

Lotte rolled her eyes at the suggestion, "Because I'd be very proud to be related to a bunch of murderers and raiders" she said sarcastically.

"Don't tell me ya can't picture it!" Amanda said after ignoring what Lotte just said "You with a giant battle axe and a fierce helmet with scary horns on it!"

Lotte sighed, "Why would my helmet have convenient levers for my enemies to grab and pull my head to the ground with?"

"God, just gotta suck the joy out of everything, huh?" Amanda responded.

After Ursula spoke to me, we said our goodbyes before heading off on our merry way, I ran back to the carriage enthusiastically, as I reached the carriage I struggled to stop and I accidentally ran into the side of the box, I fell on the ground rubbing my head.

"Are you alright?" Lotte said to me.

I got up from the ground and dusted my clothes and straighten my hat, "I'm fine, but what is that?" I said while pointing at a book that was on the ground, when I ran into the carriage it must have knocked the book out of it.

Lotte quickly went to pick it up, "It's a book I've been re-reading lately," she explained.

The cover read nightfall with an illustration of Stonehenge and a rising sun behind it, "I got this book years ago, but since the author hasn't published a sequel yet, I've decided to read it again"

"What is nightfall exactly?" I asked.

Lotte smiled, "It's a book about a School teacher named Bell who goes to marry her fiance inside a mysterious mansion, but suddenly gets transported back in time to the age of the ancient celts!" she explained, her eyes started to glimmer as she spoke, "And through a series of unfortunate events she gets caught up in a bad situation that changes the course of history!" she was getting a bit too into this.

As Lotte was rambling Sucy whispered to Amanda, "Can I hit her with a rock yet?"

"Let her have her fun mate…" O'Neil responded.

"Wow, that's...Interesting," I said nervously, "How does Bell fix this bad situation?"

Lotte's cheerfulness went to sadness very quickly after I said that, "I...do not know, there's only one book so far, but the author promises to write more in the coming years!" she explained.

"Who is this author?" Jasminka asked.

"Annabel Crème!" Lotte quickly said, "She's only published this one book, but she's already gained quite a following from the past 4 years"

A small silence fell after Lotte spoke, it suddenly began to rain, not nearly as bad when we were sailing to New Jersey, of course, but it was still raining. Lotte threw her book inside the carriage and grabbed one of the crates from the inside of the carriage, "Help me haul in this crates into the building next to us" she asked of us.

It's pretty easy for me to forget I'm doing a job but it seems Lotte is always on top of it no matter how much she gets distracted. As we were carrying the crates into the brick building, Lotte explained to us that we were selling them inside to another merchant, I got scared thinking about this, back in Boston our mission was to sell all our crates in a building right next to the harbour, now I was afraid that the new mission was to grab crates in Virginia, sail the harsh weather to New Jersey, ride a carriage for a day or two and finally sell all of the crates, I never thought I would say this but...I actually missed Boston thinking about it.

In Boston harbour lies a British Man of War, she serves as a home to the well known Diana Cavendish, she lay awake that rainy night writing a book of her own with nothing but a candle and the moon to shine light on her desk, quietly someone opened the door to her cabin "What are you writing?" the voice said to her.

"General Meridies, you are awake late," Diana said to the voice while continuing to write.

"So are you" Croix responded, "A young maiden like yourself should not be wasting her resting hours"

"I'm writing down the current situation with the colonies" Diana explained.

Croix sat down in a chair next to Diana and looked at what she was writing, "Theoretically, the problem could be solved by the Congress meeting."

Diana stopped writing, and turned her head to Croix," The...Congress?" she said in surprise.

Croix nodded, in Philadelphia today, there was a meeting between the different statesmen of the colonies, they are trying to find a resolution for the current situation.

Diana slowly began to write down in her book again after hearing that, "May I venture to the meeting?" she asked.

Croix crossed her arms, "it is far too dangerous for a loyalist like yourself to travel there," Diana sighed after hearing that, Croix smiled at her, "Someone I know has gone to the meeting to try and get every bit of information she can, she'll give you any details you need," Croix tapped Cavendish's shoulder, "I suggest that if you want to have a good day that you go to sleep now," Croix looked outside the window, "Perhaps you'd like to look at the moon."

"General Meridies," Diana said, "You are dismissed"

Croix got up from her seat and began to walk out the door, "As you wish milady, the ship will be ready to depart back to England soon enough" she then closed the door behind her, all Diana could hear was the rain and the water of the ocean.

Diana looked out her window to see the moon, it was a full moon and it was glowing a bright blue colour, Diana closed her book and put her quill in an ink bottle, she grabbed another book from beneath her desk and flipped to a page, "It's a night of the Blue Moon," she whispered to herself, Diana then got up from her seat and went to the corner of her cabin, in that corner she picked up an old broom and looked at it for a moment, back and forth she looked at the broom and the moon outside her window, eventually she sighed and put the broom back in the corner.

Diana, quietly, walked out of her cabin in the main deck of the ship, very sneakily she made her way up to the top deck trying as hard as she could to make a single sound, there were a few guards around the ship but she managed to avoid them, she then climbed up the ropes to get to the top of the mast, however not completely without notice, someone was following her, she made her way at the top of the mainmast, it was very windy up there, and very cold, but she did it anyway.

She looked ahead across the ocean, it was raining but the Blue Moon could still be seen through the dark clouds, "Diana?" a voice called out to her. Diana quickly turned back to see who it was.

Below her on the arm of the mainmast was a redcoat holding on to the ropes of the mast, "Oh, Andrew...was it?" Diana responded.

"Andrew Hanbridge," the redcoat said "Why are you here?" he asked.

Diana looked more at the sky before answering, "Tis a place to recollect thoughts," she responded.

"I recommend you get off of there soon, the captain wouldn't be too happy about it, he might kick you off the ship, regardless of social class" the redcoat explained.

"I'll keep that in mind" Diana simply said.

The redcoat sighed and climbed down the mast, leaving Diana to stare at the Blue Moon for hours to come.

Diana was not the only one looking at the moon, far away from Boston harbour was the librarian Ursula looking at it from the streets of Philadelphia, George walked up to her as she was viewing the moon, "The moon is awfully blue tonight isn't it?" he said.

Ursula nodded in response, "Tonight is the night of the Blue Moon" she explained.

George took a long look at the moon for a bit before speaking, "Is this moon important?" he asked.

Ursula took off her glasses to reveal her bright red eyes "It is said that during a Blue Moon, there is a magical being that can tell of the past, present, and future"

George smiled after hearing that, "Maybe you can ask him the future of the colonies" he then said farewell to Ursula and walked off.

Ursula whispered to herself after he left, "Professor Woodward…"

As I and the rest of the crew were sleeping in a local inn, I was woken up by the shine of the moon in my window, and by a sound, a sound of...singing, I crept out of my bed and looked out my window, I saw a figure outside staring at the moon, I couldn't see who it was but I recognized that voice, I was so tired I couldn't think straight, she continued to sing, it was calm and relaxing to listen to, so much so that I fell right back to sleep as if it were a lullaby.

"The water is deep, I can't swim home, and neither have I wings to fly, build me a boat! That will carry me to, that boat shall row my home and I"

* * *

Historical Info.

**George Washington.**

The first American president, George Washington. If you aren't American the name must at least sound familiar to you. Most of his story I will share in this story so I won't spoil it all you for you just yet, but I'm sure you know that Washington was both a president and a General for the Continental Army during the Revolution, but before that he was a general for the British, his early career during the 7 years war had him show a taste for war, and he was a very skilled general. Washington was an awkward man and was awfully passionate when it came to first impressions. The man had a list of rules for decent behaviour that he memorized and practised every day just to make good impressions on people. Washington was often quiet during the Continental Congress, though he came with a bold presence as he showed up every day with a military uniform on. Washington was primarily Christian, but he never expressed it as he believed that religious practices should be done and talked about privately. In 1759, Washington married a woman named Martha Dandridge, sometimes referred to as Lady Washington.


	8. Chapter 8 1775, April 18th

It was a rainy day, the days of winter have ended and in came spring. In a house far from Philadelphia in the Colony of New York lived a witch, a witch by the name of Croix Meridies. Croix was working on a musket upstairs, the gun was fine but she was adding something to it, she was soon interrupted when someone knocked on her door, she quickly ran down the stairs and opened the front door to see who it was, in front of Croix stood Ursula, soaking wet from the rain.

Croix's eyes lit up when she saw who it was, "Chariot! You finally returned" the two then hugged each other, "Come in! I'll make some tea" Croix said.

As Ursula walked in she looked around a bit, the house was old but quite large, "It took me a while to find this place" she explained, "How did you manage to afford this?"

"In times like this, it was best to move house!" Croix yelled from the kitchen, "Nice place ain't it? Being a redcoat pays well" she laughed. After a while, Croix walked into the living room with two cups of hot tea, she handed one to Ursula "Follow me, I have something to show you" she said to the librarian as she started walking upstairs, Ursula went up after Croix.

When the two both got up to the second floor Ursula noticed at a table at the end of the room, a musket surrounded by tools and painted pictures of the project, "Is that what you wanted to show me?" she said while pointing towards the musket.

"Oh, no" Croix responded, "That is a project I've been working on for the past few days, it should help with musket flying" she explained.

Ursula laughed, "You really haven't changed one bit, you're still an adventure-loving musketeer"

Croix looked down at the Musket before answering, "You, however, have changed, you're only a small part of your former self" she said as she looked back at Ursula, "Whatever happened to the great Ursula Calistus, captain of the Shiny Chariot?" she asked with a smile.

Ursula sighed but then smiled back at Croix, "You are one of the few people who still call me by that silly nickname of Chariot, it's almost as if...she...never left us," she said with a slight tone of sadness.

Croix rested a hand on Ursula's shoulders, "You've never been the same since then, it appears that when she fell, something fell with her" Croix then walked over to the window at the other side of the room and looked out at the falling rain.

Ursula chuckled a bit, "She's only a ship, it isn't hard to replace a ship"

"Oh please," Croix responded, "She was like a home to us both, she could never be replaced" silence fell after she said that, all we could hear was the rain outside, "Speaking of that nickname, where is the old man? I miss him" Croix finally said.

Ursula looked down for a moment, "I'm not sure, all I know is that he is preparing"

Croix looked back at Ursula with her arms crossed, "I'm very sorry I couldn't help you, perhaps I lost faith in the colonies too early"

"You are not to blame" Ursula responded, "I really thought the king would dismiss his advisers"

"Well your majesty isn't known for being a forgiving man," Croix remarked. She then grabbed Ursula's wrist and pulled her to the next room, "I think this will lift your spirits" she said as she brought Ursula to a painting on the wall.

The painting was an illustration of two women sailing on a ship, it depicted Ursula with bright red hair and a feather tipped tricorne looking at a map next to the helm, with Croix standing next to her wearing a bicorne with a flower emblem on it, pointing ahead at the sea. Ursula's eyes brightened up when she saw the painting, she chuckled, "Only one feather?"

"It was sold to me fairly cheap, I looked around the entire painting yet I could not find a name to indicate who painted it" Croix explained.

Ursula let out a delighted sigh, "It's very beautiful"

The two looked at the painting for a while before speaking again, something in Ursula's mind popped up that frightened her, the smile on her face faded as she began to look around nervously, "I have to tell Akko!" she said while grabbing her things.

"Chariot, wait!" Croix called out, but Ursula was already walking outside the door, the last thing she heard was the close of a door, Croix slowly looked back at the painting and sighed.

I and the rest of the crew were also in New York, however, we were much farther away from Ursula, a few days ago we sailed back to Boston to see if things lightened up, unsurprisingly they didn't and we were about to sail back to Philadelphia until Sucy said the faithful words of "Follow me, I know a better place to settle" and for some reason we followed her, for a few days we walked across different towns, but now for even longer we were walking in heavily wooded forests with nothing but a path to guide us.

"When are we gonna get there!" I whined.

"Keep it down," Sucy said back to me.

"But it is a fair question," Lotte replied, "We've been walking for days now, and you haven't told us anything about where we are going"

"I think we've all suspected this but I gonna go ahead and say that Sucy has gone insane" Amanda snarkily said.

Constanze nodded at what Amanda said, we were also almost out of food since we had to say our goodbyes to Jasminka back in Philadelphia. The path was getting rather narrow as we were walking next to a steep cliffside, I groaned and tilted my head up at the sky, as I walked I felt a push on my foot, I fell over and slipped down the steep hill, "Akko!" Lotte yelled as she tried to catch my hand, but to no success, all she could do was watch as I tumbled down the hill kicking up dirt and screaming, it finally ended when I hit a soft pile of leaves and branches, I had gotten scars all over my body, my hat slowly floated down onto my body.

I heard a voice, though it wasn't English, and it wasn't Japanese either, I opened my eyes and tried to get up, I saw in front of me a man, he was fair-skinned with a cloth wrapped around him, he had a bow and arrow on his back and two feathers sticking out of his hair, "Who… are you?" I asked the man.

He looked as if he was about to answer, but then we heard someone from above us, "shé:kon!" the voice yelled, It was Sucy, speaking a language that I had never heard her speak.

The man seemed to understand it as he looked at it, he turned his head back to me "Sheienté:ri kenh thi ieià:tase'?" he said.

I was nervous but I had to respond, "Anata wa nihongo o hanasemasu ka?" I said.

The man looked at me confused, so it wasn't a really weird form of Japanese.

"Akko!" I suddenly heard, I looked over to the side and saw Lotte and the rest of the crew running towards me.

"Akko, is that your name?" The man said to me.

I gasped, "You speak English?" I said in surprise.

The man laughed, "Of course I do" he put a hand on his chest, "My name is-" he was quickly cut off by the scream of Lotte asking if I was okay, when Lotte caught up she kneeled down in front of me to see if I was okay, both Amanda and Constanze seemed worried about me as well, Sucy, on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in the man that I just spoke to, he smiled with joy at seeing Sucy, "Who is this white European?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

Sucy smiled, "Long time no see"

"You know this lad?" Amanda said in surprise.

"It's a very long story" Sucy replied, "I'll tell you on the way there"

"On the way where?" Lotte questioned.

I tried to get off my back and on my feet but I fell back down and screamed in pain, I was covered in dirt and bloody wounds, everything felt like it hurt, "Do you need someone to carry you?" the man said to me.

I tried to get up again only to fall back down on my back, "Maybe" I responded, the man then lifted me from the ground and turned to Sucy.

"I'm sure you know the way," he said to her. Sucy walked ahead of us into the forest with the man, Amanda, Lotte, and Constanze following behind.

"What is your name sir?" Lotte asked the man who was carrying me.

"My name Okwaho" he answered.

"That's certainly an interesting name" Amanda pointed out, "You must be one of them Indians, aye?"

Okwaho nodded in response, "I suggest you leave those weapons behind, the people might take it the wrong way" he said to Amanda.

Amanda froze for a second, she sighed and dropped the musket near a tree. Soon we reached a non-wooded area, in front of us we saw a village with people, and long structures made out of nothing but branches, the area stood in front of a large lake with a mountain on the other side, there were a few fireplaces burning around the area, and kids running around and playing games, everyone was wearing similar clothes to that of Okwaho, back in Boston and pretty much every other town in the colonies we fit right in with our tricornes, jackets, and trousers, here however we stood out very easily, as we walked through the village the people looked at me and the rest of the crew strangely, some of the children hid behind their mothers in fear.

Okwoho carried me into one of the houses and laid me down onto a soft bed, "You all wait here while I'll go and find help" he said to us before running off.

"Where...are we?" Lotte asked while looking around the house.

"We are the Haudenosaunee, people of the longhouse" Sucy answered.

"Oh, I thought that this was the Iroquois tribe," Amanda said.

"And I thought you were from the Philippines," Lotte said.

Sucy sat down on a bench, "Iroquois is just the name Europeans gave us," she explained, "My real name is Kanontienentha,"

"I'm sorry, could you run that by me again?" Amanda said with her head tilted.

Sucy sighed, "Sucy is just an English name for folks like you to call me by. Manbavaran is the last thing I remember related to my old life"

I lifted my head feeling very curious, "What old life?"

Sucy looked down for a moment, "I was born in the Philippines, and at a very young age both my parents were murdered by Spanish conquistadors, I was sent on a ship to Spain to live my life forever as a slave, somehow I made it to the new world, I was found by the Mohawk tribe, they raised me, and I lived as one of them for most of my life,"

The pain in my body faded as I was distracted by Sucy's story, and it seemed everyone else was deep in the story as well.

"A war then broke out between the English and the French in our area, and even though our nation stayed neutral many of us died, I was captured by the English and was sent on a ship to be sold as a slave once again, this time I was older and smarter, I used mushrooms to change my skin colour to the paleness you see of me now, I managed to escape that ship and found myself in the town of Boston," Sucy turned her head at me with a smile, "That's where I first met you"

"Oh yeah that time when you pointed a gun at me, good times," I said sarcastically.

We were soon interrupted by a few people rushing inside the house with Okwoho alongside with them, a woman rushed over to me asking if I was okay, even though I had never seen her or anyone that was with her in my life, nevertheless the lady was tending to my wounds, "We have great healers in this village, I promise you'll be safe," Okwaho said to me.

Soon another woman came inside the house, she looked around for a bit when she then locked her eyes on Sucy, both the lady and Sucy's eyes looked at each other in disbelief, the lady came running towards Sucy and hugged her with tears of joy in her eyes, "What happened to you?" the lady said as she parted with Sucy, "Your skin is…"

"It's a long story…" Sucy responded.

"Oh, I don't care I'm just happy to see my daughter back!" the lady said as she gave Sucy another hug.

"This lady is your mother, Sucy?" Lotte questioned.

"Well, she is my closest equivalent, I was adopted by her and her family when I first came here" Sucy explained.

"I thought you were gone, I thought I'd never see you again," The lady said while wiping the tears from her eyes. "And who are these friends you've made?" she asked.

Amanda straighten her back and tipped her hat to the lady, "Names Amanda O'Neil, the one with the glasses is Lotte, and tiny over here is named Constanze, and that lass lying on the bed is Akko,"

"I must go tell the others! Wait here," the lady said before dashing outside of the house.

The light of day was getting dim, it was a shame that I couldn't see Sucy's home due to my injuries, It was only when I could finally walk that we were all invited to see a show, at night we all gathered around a large fire and watched it burn, soon I heard drums pounding, and soon after that I heard chanting, not just from the actors but from the audience as well.

Soon two men in the middle began dancing around the fire, crying strange chants, me and the crew stood silent, except for Sucy, who along with the other members of the tribe was chanting everything.

The drums were beating louder and louder, I heard a rattling sound, the men and women dancing in the middle were stepping on the hot wood as if it were nothing, I could feel the drumbeat as if the earth itself were moving, and the embers of the fire reached up to the heavens.

The beat of the drums was akin to the beat of my own heart, and I soon heard chanting and cheering across the entire night sky as if the gods themselves were chanting along with us, I wanted to ask Sucy what the chant meant but I couldn't even speak, I felt like I was in another world, it felt as if my spirit was being lifted from my body, it felt like a dream.

The smoke was twisting around and shaping into different creatures, I saw deer jumping around, I saw fish swimming, I even saw the faces of people chanting along with everyone else, it was all so surreal, but I so deep into the ritual that I couldn't even think to question it, the form of the smoke started to turn into a figure, a figure of a human, a figure of a woman, the smoke started to glow gold in her shape, soon the gold shape shined even brighter than the fire, and soon all the chanting, all the drums, all the rattlers suddenly stopped as the gold shape formed into a being.

Everything was frozen, I looked around and saw that everyone had their heads down and the fire was now green instead of orange, but I still heard a slow drum beat, however, the drum beaters were all frozen as well, I didn't know where the sound was coming from, it was like it was within my own mind, the golden smoke shape was now in front of me, and no longer was she smoke, she was...Mother? Right in front of me was my mother, she had red eyes just like me, and had a bright smile, she was glowing like some sort of ghostly being, as the drums were beating I heard another instrument, but it wasn't an instrument I thought I'd hear, I heard the sound of a Koto, softly playing, a soft play of the Koto that reminded me of...home.

I was shocked, I couldn't even speak any words, but I knew I was crying, I felt tears roll down my cheek, as my mother approached me she handed out something, she handed me a small model of a ship, the ship was not the Luna Nova but a different ship, it had three masts and was that of a frigate ship, and the flag had a symbol on it, the symbol was a circle with three arrows poking out of it, I went to grab the ship but the fire along with my mother started to glow a blinding light, I heard a loud bang, and opened my eyes.

The world was no longer frozen, my mother was no longer in front of me, the drums were no longer beating and the koto was no longer playing, everyone around me was looking at their hands or looking around the area with a face of confusion.

"Akko!" I heard someone yell behind me, I turned around to see, much to my surprise, Ursula, the call caught the attention of Lotte, Amanda, Constanze, and Sucy as well.

Ursula ran up to us as fast as she could, "I have to warn you!" she told us, "You must leave America"

The five of us looked at each other in confusion, "Whatever is wrong?" Lotte asked.

Ursula looked around her for a moment, then turned back to us, "Militiamen are gathering together around the colonies" she explained, "A war is about to break out"

"Is it the British?" Amanda asked.

Ursula simply nodded in response.

" I'll...be right back," Amanda said before walking over inside the longhouse.

"It's absolutely mad that these poorly trained militiamen think they can best the most professional army in the world," Ursula said.

Ursula and the rest of the crew began blabbering about the whole situation, however I was curious on what Amanda was doing, I sneakily backed away from the conversation and entered the room where Amanda ran into, I saw her putting things in her bag and dusting off her hat, "Where are you going?" I asked.

Amanda put her hat back on after dusting it off, "I'm off to join the militia" she said.

"WHAT?!" I yelled, "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I will," she responded.

"You're a woman! They won't allow you to join the militia" I pointed out.

Amanda straightened her hair a bit before answering "I know, but I don't think it'll be hard to convince them otherwise," she said as she put her hat back on.

"But you could die!" I argued.

Amanda laughed, "I know my way around a fight, those British huns will be running back to their precious king before they see it to that I'm dead"

"But...but" I stuttered to say.

"I may never live to see the green fields of Ireland free, but I want to at least see the great cities of America free." Amanda said as she laid a hand on my shoulder, she then began walking out of the house before turning back to one last time, "I'll be safe, I swear on Paddy's isle" she said as she ran out.

Lotte and the rest of the crew entered behind me into the house, "Where's Amanda?" Sucy asked.

I couldn't answer that question at first, I was so shocked.

Outside of the house, Ursula noticed something or someone rather. Talking to a few other folks was an old woman that Ursula seemed to recognize, she walked over to the woman to speak to her, "excuse me" Ursula said to the old lady which grabbed her attention, "I saw the ritual from afar, would you mind explaining to me what it means?

The old lady, thought about it for a moment, "The ritual is a way of showing our people their destiny," the lady explained, "After the ritual is over, everyone participating in it sees the gods in a different form, the form of someone they want to see the most, that someone hands them an item, and that item represents something they must find in their long journey of life"

Ursula took a glance over at the longhouse me and the crew were in, the old lady laughed, "Those girls are mighty lucky to have a girl like Sucy to tag along with them, she's a witch just like you"

Everything she said sounded normal to Ursula until she spoke that last bit, "She's a...witch?!" Ursula said in shock.

The old lady smiled, "She doesn't know it yet, she was too young for her to remember it from her parents, but I noticed as she was growing up that she is no ordinary gal, she has powers, she has magic that is much different from our clan witches."

"Perhaps I should tell her," Ursula said.

The old lady shook her head, "Now is not the time for that, she will learn when she is ready"

Inside the longhouse I told the crew about Amanda, they took just as well as I did, "I can't believe that she's gone…" Lotte said.

"A good sailor she was," Sucy said.

They were speaking as if it were over, as if that was the last time will ever see her, but I felt like there was hope, I rushed over to my bag and put my things inside, I dusted off my hat and put it on, "Let's go find her!" I said.

The rest all looked at me as if I was crazy, "Right now?" Lotte asked.

"Come on!" I cried, "she couldn't have gotten that far, we can still convince her that this is a bad idea"

The crew sat there for a while not doing anything, until Lotte stood up and put on her hat, "Aye, I think that's a good plan," Constanze silently stood up as well putting on her bicorne.

Sucy sighed and stood up as well, "Don't blame me if you trip over something in the dark"

"Yes! Let's go!" I rejoiced.

The four of us all walked outside the longhouse to find Amanda, it was very dark and all we had were candles, but I was determined to find her.


	9. Chapter 9 Lexington and Concord

It was so dark I could hardly see a thing, and we've been walking in these woods for hours looking for Amanda, but still not even a single hint, her gun that she left at the tree was gone, and we couldn't make out any footprints on the ground.

"Akko.." Lotte said to me in a tired voice, "Maybe it's about time we head back"

I thought about what she said, we were so far away we couldn't even see the fire from the village, "No!" I cried, "We can't give up now! We have to make sure Amanda will be safe with us"

"Well maybe we can try and run after her in the morning," Lotte suggested, "I fear a wolf is going to eat us"

"Hey look, over there" Sucy called to us all as she pointed towards a light, the light was of a house not too far from us.

"Settlements?" I said, "How far have wandered?"

I was soon interrupted by the sound of a ringing bell and the sounds of people moving and chatting.

"What's going on?" I asked right before we heard the sound of a horse galloping behind us.

"You four!" the man on the horse yelled to us, "The British are coming!" The man said as he rode to us, eventually, when he reached up to see us he looked at me with a face of surprise, the man looked familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it, "Atsuko Kagari?" he said to me while calming himself down from all the yelling.

It took me a while but I finally recognized him, "Paul Revere...right?" I said to him, he silently nodded with glee in response.

"I haven't seen you in years," Paul said to me, "You look so grown up!"

"Yeah but she hasn't grown any more mature," Sucy said out loud.

"Sucy…" I groaned.

"How is Ursula doing? Is she well?" Paul asked me, "I haven't seen her in quite some time, I hope she doesn't resent me for the tea incident, I really do-" Paul was cut short as he and us four heard gunshots and the beats of distant snare drums, "...They're here" Paul said as he looked over towards the sounds.

The sun was now rising over the land just barely.

"We've been walking the whole night!?" I said in great disbelief.

"So can we go back now?" Sucy said.

Paul quickly turned to us with a distressed look, "I don't know why you are here, but you must leave, the British are here" he then took off on his horse along the path.

The four of us stood there without any words, but I suddenly got an idea, "Amanda must be here!" I said with a face of excitement, although Sucy, Lotte and Constanze didn't seem to share my excitement.

"It's a battle that is about to take place," Lotte said to me, "We can't risk it"

I ignored what she said, however, and I ran ahead along the path, "Akko wait!" Lotte called to me as she chased behind me, Sucy and Constanze came running behind soon after I ran ahead, hoping to find Amanda, soon something stopped me in my tracks.

"What are you doing!?" Lotte said to me as she caught up, I didn't answer as I was looking ahead of me, soon all the four of us saw ahead was an army of British redcoats standing in a formation with a group of armed and rugged-looking civilians standing in front of them with muskets in their hands.

The civilians started loading their guns and pointing them at the British, that is until a more better-dressed man in front yelled to them, "Do not fire until fired upon" the man said.

The civilians, all confused looking, lowered their guns.

"Hold your fire," The British captain said to his soldiers, the redcoats lowered their guns with a similar look to the civilians.

"Time to go Akko" Lotte whispered to me as she tugged on my arm, but I didn't move, my eyes were fully set on the two armies.

The two armies stood there for ages, with both sides staring right at each other.

My eyes were soon taking off of the army men as I noticed that Sucy was very slowly loading her flintlock pistol behind her back, I only realized when it was too late when she pulled back the lock, "Sucy!" I yelled to her, but she quickly rose her pistol and shot one of the redcoats on the spot.

"FIRE!" The British captain yelled to his troops, and fire they did, the loud gunshots and smoke filled the air.

"RETURN FIRE!" the other captain yelled to his men, and so the battle began, both sides were shooting back and forth at each other, both sides yelling and cheering, soon I saw one of the civilians fall dead, and when he fell I got a better view of the soldier that was next to him, the man was kind of feminine-looking, and with the little amount of hair that you could see, his hair was an orange-reddish colour.

I gasped "AMANDA-" Lotte immediately cut me off by covering my mouth.

"Don't call to her now!" she said to me.

Both sides of the battle were firing relentlessly at each other, but the colonists were heavily outnumbered, many more of their soldiers fell dead, "FALL BACK!" the captain of colonists yelled, the civilians stopped firing and ran back to the settlements, many bodies of the Colonists lie dead on the grass, with the last one being brutally stabbed in the back by a bayonet.

"March!" The British captain called out, the redcoats continued on their original path, the four of us watched as they walked along the road towards the settlements.

"We have to get Amanda," I said.

"We'll all be killed!" Lotte said in stress from what she just witnessed.

"Amanda will be killed!" I yelled back, "We have to at least try!" I then jumped out of the wooded area and ran towards the settlements myself, of course, the rest of the three followed close behind.

As I arrived at a small town I saw British redcoats rummaging different homes and taking its things.

In particular, I saw a redcoat run out of a home with a small barrel of something, a woman came running and tugged on his arm, the redcoat responded by smacking the side of her head with the end of his musket, causing her to go unconscious.

I was angry after seeing that, I drew my sword hoping that all the things that Ursula has taught me would pay into good use, I ran towards the red coat with a blade in hand, he noticed me coming and blocked my first attack with his musket, he then went for a strike with his bayonet to which I blocked with my blade, while I was blocking his attacks he was pushing me back, and soon he knocked the sword out of my hand, the redcoat kicked me onto the ground and went in to stab me with the bayonet, but suddenly he froze in his movement, a short cry of pain escaped his mouth, he fell on the ground dead right next to me.

In the redcoat's back was a hatchet, Lotte came running towards me, when she got to me she pulled the hatchet out of the back of the redcoat, she looked at the blood on the axe with disgust and cleaned it with a handkerchief.

"Nice throw," Sucy said to Lotte as she caught up.

"Well...it was only luck" Lotte nervously responded.

"YOU THERE!" a voice yelled to us, we all turned to see another redcoat running at Lotte with a bayonet pointed at her, I thought for sure she would run away, but she didn't, she instead stood there with her axe in hand in a fighting stance, the redcoat made the first attack which Lotte interrupted with a swing of her hatchet, she then tried to throw an upwards strike at soldier, he quickly dodged it and went in for another attack, Lotte swiftly drifted to the side to avoid a lunge attack, she then threw a downward strike on the musket breaking it in two.

Lotte quickly turned to the redcoat, and with an overhead swing, she chopped into the redcoat's chest, killing him in the process.

I was in complete shock, I had never seen Lotte so ruthless, for the 5 years I've known her she seemed to be the most peace-loving gentle ship captain I've ever seen, hell, one of the kindest people I've ever met on the new world, today I saw a new version of her, this axe play she was doing was no luck like she said, she's done this before.

5 other British redcoats lined came over to us to fight back, Sucy grabbed a musket from a dead soldier and pointed it at one of the redcoats. Constanze pointed two of her flintlock pistols at the soldiers ahead, they were all pointed their guns about to shoot us.

Lotte pulled out her sword and handed it to me, she then held a fighting stance towards the British with just an axe in one hand, I was afraid, but I held a battle stance as well towards the soldiers, hoping to god that they wouldn't fire, I closed my eyes…

"FIRE!" a loud voice yelled, my heart stopped, I opened my eyes, but to my surprise, the redcoats weren't the ones who fired, the 5 British soldiers all dropped dead as the smoke cleared, we all quickly turned to see who it was.

Behind the battle was a large group of Colonists ready to fight, the British outnumbered the Colonists before, but now it was the other way around.

The Colonists ran in, firing their guns, it wasn't at all long before they came into direct contact with the British.

The two sides fought hard, with some soldiers shooting at each other from afar, and some fighting each other head-on with Bayonets, I just couldn't keep my eyes off it.

"Akko! Let's go!" Lotte said while grabbing my arm and pulling me away.

"But what about Amanda!?" I cried while resisting.

"She can handle herself!" Lotte cried back.

Eventually, she managed to get me to go along a path away from the battle, Sucy and Constanze were following close behind.

As I was running, I watched the battle move, "FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" a redcoat yelled, and soon the British were running away on the same path we were on, The Colonists ran after them as well.

"Move to the woods!" Sucy yelled to us.

The four of us ran to the side to hide behind some trees, as the British were running the Colonists shot them one by one along the path, the dirt road began to turn red as the bodies of redcoats stacked.

The Colonists cheered as they chased them, they started hugging each other and laughing off of the victory.

"We have to get to the Luna Nova," Lotte said to us all.

"Guide us the way, captain" Sucy said as she brushed the dirt out of her clothes.

Lotte gave us a hand gesture telling us to follow her, "Load your guns, just in case" she whispered.

Lotte and the rest of us ran through the woods trying to stay hidden from the battle, while the Colonists were firing on the British, the redcoats were firing back as well even though they were running away.

Soon we saw ahead of us a town, it was Boston town. "How far have we wandered!" I yelled.

"Shh!" Lotte snapped back at me, "It only makes us closer to the ship"

I looked around the area I was in, I fully recognized the many dead rebels around me, with people crying in their cold arms, it was hard for me to watch.

"HOLD FIRE!" a loud voice came out, "Stay where you are," a man said to all the soldiers, "We were only here to resist not attack, and we are far from prepared to free Boston."

I watched aimlessly as the man talked, until Lotte whispered to me, "Akko…" she said. I turned back to her. She led I, Sucy, and Constanze into Boston, which was a lot safer than the battlefield we were in earlier.

The streets were much more empty, we tried to hide our weapons so that the redcoats wouldn't be able to see them. Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me, someone was running towards me, as they got louder I got shoved and pushed onto the ground by a random woman who seemed to be in a hurry.

"Mi dispiace!" The woman said as she ran past me.

"Ow!" I whined as I rubbed the back of my head from the fall, "What the hell was that for?"

Lotte gave me her arm to grab as I got up, "She must be needed somewhere," she said.

"That was Italian," Sucy said. We all looked at her, puzzled.

"The language she spoke was Italian" Sucy explained.

"You understood that?!" Lotte said in surprise.

"No, but I know Italian when I hear it," Sucy responded, "It isn't all that far from Spanish"

The woman who ran past us was a woman I now know to be Croix Meridies, she was in great distress. She was heading for the Man of War that housed the noblewoman, as she reached the harbour, however, she realized she wasn't wearing a redcoat like usual, she looked around for a moment, she spotted British soldier standing in front of the now old and rundown book store of Boston. Croix walked up to the area slowly, with the intent to get inside the building.

As she reached the book store the guard stopped here, "Where do you intend on going, miss?" the redcoat asked.

Croix nervously stood there without any words to say, "...I want to hide in that building" was the excuse Croix came up with, "Just in case the rebels show up"

The redcoat looked at Croix suspiciously, he then started laughing out loud, while he was busy laughing, Croix sneaked behind him and opened the door to the building, she turned back and faced the redcoat as he was still laughing.

With a swift movement, Croix pulled out a dagger and stabbed the redcoat in the back, halting his laughter. She then dragged the guard into the building.

About 40 minutes later Croix walked out of the bookstore with a British uniform on. She continued her way to the Man of War.

Quickly she jumped onto the ship and went below the top deck into the main deck, she knocked on a door, "You may come in," a muffled voice said to Croix. She then opened the door to see Diana Cavendish, writing a book, "Meridies…" Diana said as a greeting, "What brings you here?"

"Are you deaf?" Croix said in a stressful tone "A battle in Concord just took place! We are surrounded by anti-Royalists,"

Diana stopped writing for a moment, her hand was visibly trembling with fear "That's impossible," she said, "There's no way a couple of rebellious peasants bested the British army"

"They had strength in numbers," Croix explained, "They haven't attacked Boston city but I fear they might soon. It's best that we send you back to Britain"

"Does this attack have something to do with the Congress?" Diana asked.

"I'm not sure" Croix responded, "Even if it isn't, I suspect they won't be against it"

"Perhaps I can go to the Congress myself and try and negotiate" Diana suggested.

"It's too dangerous," Croix said, "you'll be recognized easily, I'll find a ship for you to head back home on," Croix said as she left the room.

Diana looked down for a while in silence, she turned to the corner and saw her old dusty broom, She sighed and grabbed it. Diana dusted off the broom, it hadn't been used in years. As if the broom was a horse she hopped onto it, she closed her eyes and breathed, "Tia Freyre!" she cried.

The broom started to emit green particles, and Diana along with the broom started floating upwards. She faced a window in front of her, grabbing an unlit candle holder she broke the window with a strong throw and flew out of her cabin from the ship like magic.

She didn't want to be seen, so she flew quietly yet swiftly alongside the ship hoping to reach land and not be seen. Unfortunately, she caught her leg on a rope that pulled her off of the broom and onto the top deck of the ship, the broom fell into the ocean. Diana quickly got up and made a break for the bow of the ship, trying to avoid any sight. Running past the guards she quickly jumped off the bow, she expected to fall on land but instead, she fell into the water.

Diana rose from the water's surface catching her breath, she swam away from the ship to another dock nearby, she was cold and stressed until she heard a voice, "Are you okay?"

Diana stopped and turned to the voice. In front of her stood myself giving her my hand, "Do you need help?" I said.

Diana didn't say a word, she instead grabbed my arm and tried to pull herself onshore, I helped as much as I could, eventually, Diana made her way to land with my help.

She lied on the ground breathing heavily and coughing, her once beautiful blue dress was now soaking wet and her once wavey perfect hair was straight and soggy. "Who...who are you?" Diana asked.

"I'm Atsuko Kagari!" I said cheerfully.

Diana gave me a baffled look, "A-Atso...Atsu" She struggled as she tried to pronounce my name.

"...Just call me Akko" I said.

"A-Akko" Diana said as she got up from the ground, "Please accept my warmest thanks," she said as she shook my hand.

"You may remember me as one of the crew members of the Luna Nova," I said to her.

"The...Luna Nova?" she said in confusion.

"Yeah you know, the ship that escorted you to England" I explained.

Diana's face of confusion turned to a face of relief, "Oh...of course, the...ship...The Luna Nova" she said with a slight smile, "I thought you were referring to something else" Diana then began to realize something, "...Do you still have the ship?" she asked.

I smiled, "Of course I-" I was cut off.

"May you please take me to it?" Diana asked.

I froze for a moment, "Follow me" I said

I led Diana through the streets of Boston until we reached the dock, I saw Lotte, Sucy, and Constanze starring forward at something.

"What took you so long?" Sucy said to me as I reached them.

"I caught up with you didn't I?" I said.

"Akko" Lotte said as she turned to me, "And...Diana?" she said in a confused tone.

"She wishes to sail on the ship to somewhere" I explained.

Lotte sighed, "We may have to abandon The Luna Nova…"

"What!?" I yelled, "We can't just abandon her after all these years!"

"Look ahead," Sucy told me.

I saw before me The Luna Nova, but the only difference being that redcoats were now patrolling it as if it were their own. My heart sank.

"You there!" a guard called out to us, "Do you know the owner of that ship?" he asked.

"No not at all sir" Lotte responded nervously.

"Well if you happen to find them you are to return them to us, they are to head to jail after all that tea smuggling," the soldier said.

The soldier then walked away.

"We can't stay in Boston!" I said as he left, "We'll be found for sure!"

"Giving the fact that we're all women, I don't think it likely for the British to suspect us at all" Sucy pointed out.

Diana cleared her throat loudly to grab the attention of us all, it hit us too soon that we were next to a British patriot. "I will not turn you in"

Lotte smiled in relief, "Oh thank you so-" she was cut off.

"But! I want you to escort me to Philadelphia" Diana said sharply.

A small silence fell between us all, eventually, Lotte sighed and agreed, "But first I want you to cut your hair, and change your clothes," Lotte said to Diana, "It'll be far too easy for rebels to recognize you otherwise"

Diana nodded in response

After an hour or so Diana walked over to us with cut hair with a hat covering her green and silver hair, she was wearing a brown women's dress and a white blouse, she blended right in with the rest of the crowd.

Soon we all walked around the city to find a carriage of some sort to carry us to Pennsylvania, "What about Amanda?" I asked Lotte.

Lotte looked down with a sad look on her face, "I don't worry for her, she knows what she's doing," she said, "It's the many deaths of the rebels, redcoats, and innocent civilians that will take place in this war that worries me"

* * *

HISTORICAL INFO

Well, bloody hell, I hope I succeeded in making a fairly unique story, out of the 900 fanfictions there are of Little Witch Academia this has to be the first where Lotte hacks a person to death with a tomahawk. I've created a problem where I can no longer watch the real show without laughing because I realize that I put these wholesome sweet girls into ancient warfare and bloodshed.

**The Battle of Lexington and Concord.**

April 19th, 1775. A British army force is heading from Boston to steal gunpowder and other goods from rebels up in Massachusetts Concord, many patriots (Including Paul Revere) warned the rebels that the British were coming, giving them time to prepare. a rebel army met up with the British in Lexington, and the two sides simply stared at each other for hours. The rebels only wanted to resist not attack, for neither sides wanted a real battle, eventually, however, somebody shot the opposing side. To this day nobody knows who fired that shot, which is why I had a fictional character fire the shot, It was an important shot, for it was the official start for the American Revolution.


	10. Chapter 10 1775, April 20th

Morning has dawned, and for the first time in a while, I slept on something other than a hammock, although sleeping on the hard ground wasn't much better, I opened my eyes to look around for a moment. Lotte was reading a book and Sucy was picking mushrooms, Constanze was tossing a rock up and down and Diana was leaning against a boulder looking rather chilly

"Diana? Are you okay?" I asked while rubbing my eyes.

"It's too cold out here" she responded. "And my back feels terrible for laying on the hard ground for so long"

Diana had her arms wrapped around her, and she was visibly shaking. It didn't feel all that cold to me, perhaps I was more tolerant than I thought.

"Congratulations," Sucy said, "You now get to experience what we do on a daily basis"

Yesterday Lotte tried to find a carriage in Boston to escort Diana to Philadelphia, we couldn't find anything that was affordable, so we headed out for another town to find one.

"Alright, lets head out mates," Lotte said as she closed her book and stood up.

Diana seemed shocked at her words, "Now!?"

"Of course" Lotte responded.

"What about breakfast?" Diana said, "We haven't eaten at all!"

"When we reach a forest we might be able to find some game," Lotte said.

"What about a morning bath?" Diana said, "You four certainly look like you need it"

Lotte sighed, "The life of a sailor doesn't come with such luxuries, among us you'll have to live as one of the commoners"

Diana didn't seem particularly happy about that but she stood up and followed us along the road anyway.

Yesterday and today I got a really good idea on what proper English sounded like from Diana, for all of us, English was just a second language, but for Diana, it was her mother's tongue, she spoke prim and proper English, she pronounced words clearly and precisely, and she was very formal, she truly spoke the queen's English.

"Why do you want to get to Philadelphia anyways?" Lotte asked.

"I wish to speak with the statesmen of the Continental Congress" Diana explained, "I want to negotiate with them in hopes to avoid any major conflict"

"So you're on a personal diplomatic mission?" Lotte questioned.

"Indeed," Diana replied.

Lotte chuckled "If I were to turn you back to the British I can only imagine the reward,"

Diana didn't seem to be amused by Lotte's joke, "I hope you are not one to go back on your word"

"I'm only playing with you," Lotte said with a smile."Us four remain neutral in this conflict, you are safe with us"

"And yet you still smuggle tea from the black market against the crown," Diana said with a hint of anger in her voice.

"I bow to no crown nor do I bow to any rebel alliance," Lotte said, "Money is my only aim at the end of the day."

"Are you aware of England's financial issues?" Diana snapped back "You type are a burden on the economy"

"Lift the tax on tea" Lotte responded, "Maybe the folks will actually buy it"

Diana went to say something, but she halted to stop to catch her breath.

"Fine there?" Lotte asked.

Diana looked like she was freezing, "May we settle here for the time being?" she asked.

"Now?" I said "We've only been walking for two hours now"

"I think two hours is a fair amount of time to take a walk," Diana said with a red face

Lotte sighed before pulling out her hatchet and lobbying it into the side of a tree, "We settle here then"

I groaned. it felt like to me that we only got up to leave a few minutes ago.

All of us except for Diana went to making a fire, Lotte with her hatchet found some dry wood and cut it up for the fire while me, Sucy and Constanze went looking for small kindling.

Diana noticed something as Lotte was chopping wood, "That axe" she said out loud, "Where did you get that axe?"

Lotte froze for a moment, "...I found it"

Diana took notice that the axe was not a woodcutting axe, "That's a Swedish war axe"

Lotte started cutting the wood again with a nervous look on her face, she tried to avoid eye contact with Diana.

"Vikings used those axes to raid, pillage, plunder churches in the dark ages," Diana said, "Your accent is very Swedish sounding"

"That was over 500 years ago," Lotte said, "And while Finland may be apart of Sweden, My line of the family is from that of the natives and not the Swedish Viking settlers"

Diana was still suspicious, "...If you say so"

We eventually had a fire set up, and while I and the crew were relatively bored, Diana was welcoming the warm fire as if it were a god. One thing that was lacking was Amanda, who was the one who rose conversation between us and had us sing grand songs all day long.

"It's very quiet…" I said while staring down at the fire.

"Just isn't the same without our shantyman," Lotte remarked.

Diana froze for a moment after she heard that, she finally took notice that we were lacking a very significant part of our crew.

"...Hark now the drums beat up again for all true soldier gentlemen," Diana began to sing, "Then let us list and march I say...over the hills and far away"

Diana's beautiful singing voice caught the attention of us four immediately, soon Lotte sang along the chorus seemingly knowing the song beforehand.

"All gentlemen that have a mind to serve the queen that's good and kind" Diana continued to sing, "Come list and enter into pay, then over the hills and far away"

Sucy, with an idea of the words, sang along the chorus as well while Constanze played the melody on her hurdy-gurdy.

"No more from sound of drum retreat, while Marlborough and Galway beat, the French and Spaniards every day when over the hills and far away" Diana sang.

Soon we were all singing along with the song, and we all harmoniously sang the last chorus.

"_Over the hills and o'r the main, to Flanders, Portugal and Spain, King George commands and we'll obey, over the hills and far away"_

We all laughed and clapped as we sat down again in front of the fire, perhaps Diana and Amanda weren't as far from each other as I originally thought. Diana had a smile on her face that reminded me of the many times Amanda would sing for us, Diana soon reverted her smile back to the cold serious face I came to recognize, she cleared her throat and stared into the fire.

After a while, Lotte ordered Sucy and Constanze to come with her to hunt for food, leaving me and Diana to tend to the fire, those three were the only ones who knew how to fire a musket, although when we asked Diana she didn't even respond.

The three hunters were still far from camp, we heard a few gunshots every once in a while after they left, implying that they had found a target. I decided to pull out one of my books and read for a while, somehow throughout yesterday and today I had kept with me my most precious item, the English book about Shiny Chariot, as I was reading it, Diana took notice of the cover, which simply read, "The Shiny Chariot"

"I didn't think of you as the type to read," Diana said.

I looked up with a smile, "It's my favourite book about the legendary Shiny Chariot!" I said with glee.

Diana looked to the side with a rather unimpressed look, "That scum…"

Those words shook me, "What do you mean?" I said with a heavy heart.

"Shiny Chariot is a pirate," Diana said, "Her crimes will never be forgiven"

"Chariot is not a pirate!" I said angrily, "She's a hero! My hero"

"She's a murderer!" Diana snapped back, "The blood of thousands is on her hands" Diana sighed and looked down at the fire, calming herself, "More than 10 years ago, three British frigates were heading back to England from a long voyage in the Atlantic, it was only when a pirate ship with a female captain by the name of Chariot came along and shank every ship to the bottom of the sea"

I shrank down when I heard that, "That...that can't be true"

"It was a massacre," Diana said, "No soldier made it out alive, and it was a tragedy that affected millions, the rebels like to frame her as a hero as if she was doing it for them, but really all she wanted was gold and genocide"

I could believe what I was hearing, "N-No...no! Chariot would never do such a thing!" I yelled.

"The books you read are mere fiction and far from fact," Diana said.

"I'll...I'll find Chariot!" I said, "and I'll prove you wrong"

"Chariot is dead" Diana bluntly said.

My heart sank, I felt so broken when I heard those words.

"1760, July 7th" Diana began to say, "Not long after her tyranny, Chariot's ship was founded and captured, every single crew member was publicly executed, including Chariot herself"

I didn't know how to respond to that, I couldn't deny that Diana knew of England and it's history way better than I did.

We were both interrupted as Lotte, Sucy and Constanze called out to us with a bag of fish Lotte's hand.

Lotte put the fish into a pot and boiled it over the fire, "Where did you get fish?" I asked.

"Not too far from here is a nice creek with fish to farm," Lotte explained.

The five us all sat down and waited for the food to cook, it's been a while since we had any food. Diana was hesitant on trying it at first as it wasn't the food she was used to, she eventually dug in any way to be polite.

As this was all happening, two women were walking in Concord, Ursula and Croix. The two met up with each other after hearing a loud gunshot from Lexington miles away.

"This is where the battle took place, correct?" Ursula said to Croix.

Croix nodded in response, "It's mighty impressive that a few rebels bested the British"

Ursula looked around the area, the houses had bullet holes in them, and she could see people in homes still recovering from gun wounds.

"You two!" a voice called out to them.

An old looking man wearing glasses came up to them, "What happened here?" he asked.

Croix and Ursula looked at each other before answering, "The start of a war" Croix ominously said.

The man looked around the area with a look of sadness, "So it has begun"

"Who are you?" Ursula asked.

"Benjamin Franklin" The man said as he held out his hand, "And you two are?"

"Ursula Callistus, and this is Croix Meridies" Ursula explained.

Ursula and Croix shook Franklin's hand separately.

"England got what was coming to them," Franklin said, "This is only the beginning of the American Revolution"

"You're the statesman of Pennsylvania, correct?" Croix said.

"Indeed," Franklin responded, "I just recently arrived from London to be elected into the Congress"

"You support the rebel cause?" Ursula said.

"Of course I do!" Franklin said, "It will take more than just guns for his Majesty to realize his tyranny"

"The Congress is all the way in Philadelphia" Croix explained, "Why did you land off here?"

"I wanted to see where the battle took place just to be sure it was real," Franklin responded, "I was shocked when I first heard about it"

"If you want I could take you to the colony in my carriage", Ursula suggested, "I was planning on going there myself"

"And why should I trust the words of a random woman such as yourself?" Franklin said.

"I'm friends with the statesman of Virginia" Ursula explained, "Is that trustworthy enough?"

"Mister Washington is a very quiet man, he has never spoken to me about an Ursula Callistus" Franklin said, "While your offer is most kind and generous, I cannot easily trust the words of a random citizen"

"I met him in the French and Indian war" Ursula said, "I can tell you all about it"

"You may tell me about it tomorrow" Franklin said, "In the meantime, I must rest" Franklin then bid the two farewell and walked away.

"Is it really all that safe to tell him the story?" Croix said to Ursula

"It doesn't matter if I convince him or not" Ursula responded, "All I need to do is travel to Philadelphia, with or without a passenger"

"The French and Indian war…" Croix said to herself, "Those were the days of a carefree young Chariot"

Ursula chuckled to herself.

"You don't still fancy him do you?" Croix said to Ursula.

Ursula looked up to Croix in surprise, "What?"

"George" Croix said, "I remember the young Chariot being head over heels for General Washington"

Ursula sighed, "We settled this 10 years ago"

Croix laughed, "Why haven't you, a woman in her 40s, settled down yet?"

"You're married," Ursula said, "Yet I wouldn't say that you have settled down"

The two both laughed for a while before Croix spoke, "Miss Cavendish has disappeared from Boston, if you could help me look for her that would be great"

Ursula nodded, "I will also need to warn Lotte and her crew about the war"

The two parted and went on seperate paths to God knows where.

Eventually Lotte and the rest of us found a carriage in a small town nearby.

"You do know the way to Philadelphia, right?" Diana said as Lotte was putting a few things in the carriage.

"If all else fails, we'll just ask for directions" Lotte responded.

Diana groaned, "That answer leaves much to be desired…"

"We'll be heading to the indian village in the west first," Lotte explained, "We left quite a few things there"

"That wasn't part of the deal itself" Diana said with her arms crossed.

"The gear will make the journey easier"

"I suppose that's fair" Diana said in response.

Lotte jumped up in front to steer the carriage while the rest of us sat in the back, usually when we do this we have a load of crates to sit on, but this time we only had the small backs of our items we brought with us, so we had to lay down on the flat trembling floor.

I spent my time on the road reading my book, I noticed that Diana was writing a book herself while on the ride, it was hard to make out but the title of the book read "America, 1770"

Sucy was meditating, her eyes were closed and she breathed softly for the next many hours we were on the ride, and every once in a while she spoke a language other than English. Constanze seemed to drafting something on paper for most of the ride.

The carriage stopped, I fell asleep halfway through the ride until I heard Lotte's voice call out.

I woke up and saw that I was the only one inside the carriage, I looked outside and saw the rest all looking at me, "We're here, Akko" Lotte said to me.

Still tired, I jumped out of the carriage into the cold air, the sun was setting and it was getting darker, I saw ahead of me smoke rising from the ground within a forest, it must be the village I thought to myself.

Sucy lead us through the forest, and as we drew closer I heard voices, they the voices of people chanting around a large fire just like last time.

"This is the village of those Indian savages?" Diana said as we approached.

"Yes," Lotte said, "And Sucy, our poison enthusiast, just happens to be from this village"

Diana looked over to Sucy, who didn't look very happy with the name Diana called the natives by. Diana thought that it might be best to stay quiet about the tribe.

Soon a man noticed us, and looked at us with a smile, it was Okwaho, "Welcome back!" he said to us.

"Hello" Lotte said, "You didn't by chance throw away our bags of precious resources, did you?"

Okwaho laughed, "Course not, I have all the items in that longhouse," He said as he pointed towards one of the many longhouses in the area.

He showed us into the Longhouse, inside we saw Sucy's parents talking to each other, as soon they saw Sucy they ran over and hugged her, "Thank the gods you're safe!" her mother said, "When we heard the distant gunshot we were all so scared that we lost you right after we found you"

Dian looked surprised "What is this?" she asked.

"It's a long story" Lotte responded.

Lotte noticed all of our belongings in a small bed in the middle of the longhouse, she walked over as Sucy's parents were still sobbing, she checked the bags to see if anything had been lost.

As Sucy's parents stopped sobbing they took notice of Diana, "Where's Amanda?" her father said, "And who is this?"

Diana hesitated before speaking, "Diana...Aris, my name is Diana Aris"

I looked at her in confusion, why did she lie about her last name?

"Amanda fell behind," Lotte said as she walked back over to the group.

"The clan mother wishes to speak with you" Sucy's Mother said to her daughter.

"I'll go see her now then" Sucy said as she turned to walk outside of the longhouse, "Don't cause trouble," she said to us before walking out.

"Clan Mother?" Diana asked.

"The clan mother is the source of wisdom in the tribe, we go to her for help" Okwaho explained. "She also is an important figure in the council"

"Council?" Diana said in confusion

"Yes!" Okwaho said, "All tribes must have a council and government to stay afloat"

"Right…" Diana said as she pulled out her book and started writing again.

"Well, we can go whenever you wish" Lotte said to Diana as she sat down on one of the beds, "as long as whenever is after Sucy's meeting"

Diana stopped writing for a moment to look around, "I think we should stay," she said.

"Stay?" Lotte said in surprise.

Diana nodded, "This place is much more civil than I expected, I want to stay and see how the people here live and how the political system works"

"Alright then" Lotte said while leaning back on the wall, "You'll hear no problems from me"

I was happy when I heard that, I didn't get to experience this magical place before as much as I would've liked to, a few more days in this village would do me no harm, and I was also hoping that this place would keep us out of danger from the war that has just begun.


	11. Chapter 11 1754, April 3rd-April 4th

"Once I was a little boy, so my mother told me"

"_Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe"_

"That if I didn't kiss the girls my lips would grow all mouldy"

"_Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe"_

Those were the songs I heard day and night on every great moment on this ship, that song drifted away from me however as I noticed land far on the starboard.

"That's enough, Bruce," I said out loud, the singing soon stopped after, "Jack, take the helm" I yelled as I let go of the wheel and walked down to the top deck.

"Starboard captain! There's land!" a man upon the mainmast yelled to me.

"Bring her down to half sail!" I yelled to the rest of the crew, "And bring out the stunsails! Drag her over to the shore!" Not long after I gave orders the ship started to make her way to the land.

I walked over to my second mate who was pulling the ropes, "Where's Croix?" I asked him.

"In the cabin, I believe," He said while struggling to pull the ropes, "Hadn't seen her since we started the voyage"

I sighed and walked inside the cabin behind me, inside I saw a large table in the middle of the room, with a charted map spread across it. I looked to the right to see Croix sleeping in a hammock, she was wearing nothing but a cotton shirt and black trousers, her hat was on her face and she had an empty bottle of rum in her hand that was dangling off the hammock.

I pulled out my wand and shot out a little spark that broke the rum bottle into pieces, which awoke Croix with a shock. "Che diavolo!?" she yelled as she got up. when she saw me however she calmed down, "Oh, Ursula, it's just you"

I glared at her, feeling very displeased, "Did you sit here the entire voyage drinking rum?"

Croix looked down at the ground and saw that there were a few other rum bottles scattered across it. "Well, we were out of whiskey, so I had to make do"

"You are usually the professionnelle navigatrice between us two," I said.

Croix looked at me with a face of confusion, "...I don't speak French, Ursula"

I sighed, "The one time I let you be the charter…"

"Well, I thought I was going to be joined by Edward to draw out the map" Croix explained, "The scot never arrived, one thing led to another and…" she took a full bottle of rum and shook it, "Where is the scot anyway? Is he out there with Harald?"

"Before this voyage, I haven't seen Edward for Three days, he's been disappearing ever since he got married" I explained.

"Married to a witch," Croix said while laying back down on the hammock.

"You're still gushing about that?" I said.

"This is the future," Croix said, "The common man getting married to a witch, but not just any witch, a witch with a powerful lineage" she then took a full bottle of rum and took a swig, "That, Ursula, is the future, where the magic and the non-magic can live in peace…" she took another swig of the bottle.

I shook my head, "God, you're an embarrassment when you're drunk" I then snatched the bottle out of Croix's hand, "Come on out, The harp is waiting"

We lowered anchor near the shore, I spied a few English and French ships while sailing here, so I expected company.

I stood at the bow of the ship, looking around the forest like area, "Croix, Harald!" I called, the now sober and fully dressed first mate along with the strong Viking second mate walked over to me, "Take control of the ship while I'm gone, I want you to sail around the land and map it in the cabin, aye?" I said

The two looked at each other, then nodded to me. I grabbed a broom that was strapped to my back, I hopped on it as if it were a horse and gave these words, "Tia Freyre!" I kicked myself off the ground and flew on the broom all the way to the shore.

I took one last look at the ship before running off towards the unknown, I took off with an adventurous spirit.

I ran through the forests and plans without any regards for my own safety, I ran into a clearing were I saw next to me a beautiful scene, I was on the side of a cliff, I saw rivers below and smoke in the far distance.

"Hey!" someone yelled to me as I ran, I turned quickly, but I tripped on a pebble and fell

"Are you alright?" another voice said to me, I got up to see two British soldiers standing before me, two regulars it appeared.

"I'm fine," I said as I dusted myself off.

"What are you doing here?" one of them asked.

I still didn't know much English, so I prayed that they didn't get too complicated, "I'm...lost"

"Best that you head back home love," one of them said, "The battleground is no place for a lady"

"We'll escort you to a safe town nearby," the other said.

I understood most of what they said, but I was so nervous I spoke on instinct "Je vous remercie" I said.

The two soldiers froze and looked at me for a second, they suddenly both grabbed my shoulders and tied my hands behind my back, "You French rat!" They said to me.

"Come on then, we'll take her to the general" the soldier said.

The two soldiers walked me to a small fort, it began to rain as we approached it, and the day darkened, we walked down into a valley where the fort was located.

A man walked out of a small hut in the fort, he handed a letter to a soldier who then ran off into the hills, the man then turned his way to me, the two British soldiers pushed me towards him.

"Who is this?" the man said.

"French spy," one of the soldiers said. "Found her in the woods"

"That's a bold claim," the man said as he approached me. "And what say you, miss…"

"Ursula Calistus," I said.

"See?! A French name, a French spy" the soldier behind me said.

The general looked at the redcoat unimpressed and then looked back to me, "Ursula, come with me" the general then walked back towards the little hut I saw him come out of.

"Sir?" one of the soldiers said in confusion.

"I'll talk to her personally," the general said.

With my hands still tied behind my back, I walked into the hut, it was dark with all but two candles to light it. The general sat down in front of a table, "George Washington" he said.

I looked at him strangely.

"That's who I am," The general said. He held out his hand for me to shake, but my hands were still tied. I stayed silent, awkwardly he retracted his hand.

He sighed, "Where are you from?"

"France," I said. "But I am no spy, I am hardly even loyal to the French soldiers."

"That outfit you wear isn't a lady's," George said.

"I'm the captain of a ship," I said.

He seemed shocked by that detail, "My men gave me details about an unrecognizable frigate just off the shore, do you know anything about it?"

"That's my ship," I explained, "I call her the Chariot"

"Who do you work for?" George asked.

"Myself," I simply said.

George sighed and got up from his seat, he went behind me and untied the bonds on my hands.

"...I'm free to go?" I asked.

George sat back down on his chair, "You propose no harm to us, You shall stay here until I say you can leave"

"Why?!" I angrily said.

"I really doubt you are a spy, but I shouldn't take any chances," George said.

I and George walked outside the hut, it was still raining, "Sleep in that hut," he told me, "It's warm"

A Soldier ran up to George and I, "What's the word captain?"

"Keep an eye on her," George said, "Make sure she doesn't leave but do not bring her any harm, I would hate to be responsible for an innocent person's death"

"Aye sir," The soldier said.

"My crew!" I said, "They won't know why I'm gone"

"If you're a good captain they shall wait until judgment day till your return," George said as he walked off.

That night I waited until not many guards were out, I sneaked outside my hut and climbed on top of it. I couldn't leave, as there were guards still surrounding the fort with guns that could shoot a flying target, but I needed to contact my fellow crew members, using the magic wand in my vest I emitted particles of light into the sky, what was unknown to me at the time was that George Washington was watching everything that I was doing, peeking through his hut door. A large bird came flying down towards me, it landed on my arm, I handed it a little letter, "Bring this to first mate Croix" I whispered to the bird, the bird then took off and flew towards the Chariot.

Carefully, I climbed off the hut and headed inside for rest.

Morning dawned quickly, the rain had stopped but the British troops were all rallied in the centre of the fort.

"You're awake finally," George said to me.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"We're retreating…" George said with shame. "The first battle of this war was lost.

"War?" I said with much confusion.

"I should've never signed that letter…" George said to himself, "Such a disgrace"

I and the army of British soldiers marched back to the ships that brought them there.

"Ursula," George said to me, "You are permitted to leave, I'll escort you to your ship"

I was happy to hear those words, "Thank you"

As the soldiers kept marching I and George went a separate path that led to the Chariot. We walked along the same cliffside I did.

"I had nothing to do with this," I said.

George looked at me with confusion.

"I promise you I am no spy! I had nothing to do with your army being forced to leave!" I said in distress.

George laughed, "I believe you, Ursula, I already know why this is all happening and you have nothing to do with it"

I was relieved to hear that, I was so afraid at first.

"Course you do prove to be a threat," George said, "You witch"

George quickly pushed me back towards the cliff edge, he kept me from falling by hanging onto my vest, but he seemed willing to let go. "We should've killed you from the start, you didn't come here to spy on us, you came here to bring a curse!"

"Wait! Please let me explain!" I cried.

"You go against god and all who follows, now you must die" George then pushed me off of the cliff, I fell, but soon I stopped falling, George watched in shock as I and my first mate Croix rose upon a broomstick.

George began to run back to his army, but before he could, Croix hopped off the broom and tackled George to the ground. "Where's the harp?" Croix asked.

"The what?!" George said.

"The Harp!" Croix yelled while pinning the man down, "Where is it?!"

"I don't have it with me!" George said, "It's with the men, most likely on the ship already"

Croix got up from the ground and hopped back on the broom, "I found our target," she said to me as we flew off into the sky back to the Chariot.

"Hey, wait!" George yelled to us from below, "Stay where you are you witch!" he followed us on foot.

We flew close to shore, we saw the Chariot within distance of the shore still waiting, but we saw two British frigates sailing away, we lowered down to ground level, and we watched long enough for George to catch up with us, he stopped when he reached us as he watched in surprise that his army left him.

"Guess they forgot about you, mate" Croix said.

"Fly me to that ship!" George yelled to us.

"In exchange for?" Croix said raising one eyebrow.

"The gallows in the morning," George said.

"Hop on then," I said.

"What am I thinking?!" George said, "I should never trust a witch with anything"

"Well, it's either the broom to the boat or staying here for months," Croix said.

Hesitantly, George hopped on board the broom with us, "Tia Freyre" Croix cried out, and off we went towards the Chariot.

Flying was something me and Croix were used to, it was the most basic form of magic, but to a commoner like Washington, it was terrifying.

George grabbed onto my waist for dear life, the poor man sounded like he was going to have a heart attack. "This is unnatural!" George yelled, "You two are demons!"

We soon landed on the Chariot, George quickly hopped off the broom when we got close enough and leaned on the foremast, "I feel sick…" he said. "Wait, I thought you said you'd bring me to the royal navy"

"Being hanged by the neck until dead didn't sound nice..." Croix said as she and I walked away.

George stopped leaning against the mast, "Everyone!" he began to preach, "These two women are witches! They can't be trusted, we must rid them from this world!"

The crew all looked at him strangely and began to work as if he wasn't even there.

"Wh-what are you doing!?" he yelled, "Have you no common sense!?"

"We know that they're witches!" A voice yelled at him.

My second mate approached him with an axe in hand, "You must be new here" he said.

George quickly turned to him with a worried look on his face.

"What's your name?" The mate asked.

"George Washington" George responded.

The mate laughed, "Harald Jansson" he handed out his hand for George to shake.

Slowly, George shook Harald's hand. "Goodly met…"

"I'll be your second mate for this voyage, my friend," Harald said, "That there is your first mate, Croix, next to the captain, Ursula," he said as he pointed at me and Croix. "Come on and I'll show ya the ropes"

"Why are you dressed as a Viking?" George asked. "And that axe, that's a Swedish War axe, Vikings used those 500 years ago"

"Who do you think I'm a descendant of?" Harald said with a smirk.

"Wait! You are mistaken, I am not here to work on the ship" George quickly said.

Harald froze for a moment then turned to me, "Why is he here then?"

"He could prove to be useful," Croix said, "He might lead us to our target"

"Keep an eye on him, alright?" I said to Harald, he gave me a salute in response.

"Haul in all sail! Catch the wind and head straight for that British ship" I yelled. "Croix, take the helm, and you four lads haul in the anchor," I pulled out my broom from my back and threw it at George who quickly caught it, "And you shall sweep the ship until it's clean"

Without a word, George began to clean all the dust that was on the ship, although I did hear him mumbling.

We quickly made our way towards the British frigate, unsurprisingly it was much faster than the Chariot, but that's exactly what I needed. I hopped on a broom and stealthily made my way to the British ship.

"What do you devils need that harp for anyway?" George asked while I was flying away.

"Something more important than you could ever imagine" Croix said.

I made my way to the side of the ship, I jumped off my broom onto the ladder and climbed in the ship through a cannon window, there were a few men in the deck, but only a few, I spied a military uniform in a barrel next to me, I quickly changed clothing to blend in, I hid my hair under the hat to fool others into thinking I was a man, I speedily waltzed passed the two British soldiers talking to each other and headed up to the main deck.

"We left General Washington behind!" I heard one of the redcoats say.

"We shall send a scout to find him, in the meantime, we have to keep on course," another redcoat said to him.

Without much notice I walked into the main cabin and looked around, it was very fancy and cosy looking, and I saw at the end of the room a small harp right for the taking.

I quickly ran over and snatched it, I hid it behind my vest.

The doors behind me soon opened, I turned around to see two redcoats pointing guns at me and the captain in between them.

"What are you doing here soldier?" the captain asked.

"I just lost my way is all…" I said.

The captain looked at me strangely, "Alright, off you go then" he said as he leadeth me outside.

I went to walk back to the main deck to escape, but I then heard a voice. "Hey! It's that French spy from the other day!"

The captain quickly turned to me, "Kill him!" he yelled.

All soldiers around suddenly pointed their guns and fired at me, I managed to jump down the stairs before they could hit me, "After the spy!" I heard them yell.

I grabbed my broom as soon as I could, they reached the main deck and pointed their guns at me.

I pulled out my wand and shot a spark at the main in front which launched him into the wall, the other soldiers were so surprised that they missed their shots when they fired.

"It's a witch!" the captain yelled.

"Tia Freyre!" I cried, I flew away from the ship as fast as possible, soldiers on the top deck and scouts on the masts began firing at me, but none of the shots hit, I safely returned back to the Chariot.

"Are you alright?" Harald asked, "I heard many gunshots"

"I'm alright," I said, "And I got the harp" I pulled the harp out of my vest to show it to the crew.

"This is bad…" George mumbled to himself.

Croix smiled, "Set course England!" she yelled.

"England?" George said in surprise and worry, "What reason do you have to go there?"

"To visit an old friend," I said as I walked inside my cabin.

"I forgot to say this earlier," Croix said to George, "You have a nice name"

"Thank...you," George said.

George then walked over to the bow of the ship and looked ahead, we were still following that British ship, "What am I to do now?" he mumbled to himself.


	12. Chapter 12 1775, May 10th-June 15th

The sun rose over the village and I woke up much earlier than usual. A few months ago, I and the rest of the crew decided to stay in Sucy's home for as long as Diana wished before we were to escort her to Philadelphia. part of me wished that Diana would forget about the whole escort thing, the beds in the Longhouses are so much nicer than the hard forest ground or the cold hammocks on the Luna Nova.

I walked out of the Longhouse to see the Amazing sunrise across the large lake in front of the village. Leaning on a tree was Sucy, who was singing a song while beating on a hand drum. I didn't understand what she was saying but it sounded nice.

"Good morning Akko," A voice said to me.

I quickly turned to see Lotte in the same clothing as everyone else in the village, as was I, in fact, everyone in the crew started to wear the clothing the Mohawk tribe members gave us, all except for Diana who cleaned her own European clothes daily and only wore the Mohawk clothing when there was nothing else to wear.

"You're up earlier than usual" Lotte said to me. "I was just about to fish for food at the lake"

"Constanze is out hunting I imagine" I responded.

Lotte nodded.

As Lotte walked off towards the Lake, Diana walked out of the Longhouse to see what was happening. When we first set off with Diana she had to cut her hair in order not to be noticed by rebels, but now that the weeks have passed her hair is just as long as it was when we first met, she didn't seem to mind as she took great joy in writing down the things she learned from this new culture.

"May I ask what Kanontienentha is doing?" Diana asked, referring to Sucy. "She does this every morning and I haven't a clue on what it means"

"I...have no idea" I answered.

Diana looked at me strangely, "You've known her for 5 years, yet you know nothing about this?"

I shrugged, "To be fair I only learned she was a native a few weeks ago"

Sucy then stopped her singing and opened her eyes to us, "It's a song from my people, surely you know of songs from your own people as well"

"That's fair…" Diana said.

Diana then stepped back into the Longhouse. I sighed and walked over to a place to sit in front of the lake, staying here in this village reminded me of the thing I saw during the ritual months ago. An idea suddenly sparked in my mind, I jumped up and ran towards another Longhouse.

I opened the curtains to see a gathering of a bunch of different people talking to each other, however, they all ceased talking when I ran in, "I wish to speak with the clan mother!" I said.

Okwaho, one of the folks in the gathering looked at me, "We are in a meeting current-" he was cut off when the clan mother held up her hand to tell him to stop.

"She is in distress," The Clan Mother said, "We shall continue this later"

The Clan Mother then got up and walked out of the Longhouse with me. "What do you wish to speak to me about?" she asked me.

"Weeks ago I attended one of the rituals here, and I want to know what exactly I saw" I explained, "I thought you might know something about it"

The Clan Mother stood there for a moment, thinking, she then grabbed a bowl filled with ash, there was a hot coal smoking in it, and The Clan Mother took a pinch of some material and dropped it on the hot coal, the flakey like material burned up and created even more smoke, "Is this what you saw?" The Clan Mother asked me.

The smoke shaped into the frigate that I saw months ago at the ritual, but it was much harder to make out. "Yes, this is what I saw" I answered.

"What you see in that smoke is what you must find in your long journey of life" The Clan Mother explained.

"But...how do I find that?" I asked.

The Clan Mother laughed, "That is for you to figure out yourself" she then walked back into the Longhouse as I stared into the lake.

"Hey, Akko!" a voice cried out to me, it was Lotte again. She ran over to me looking rather tired. "You look like a lot is going through your mind"

"Yeah, and not much goes through your mind," Sucy said behind me.

I groaned, "It's that damn ritual we had a while ago, the thing I need to find is a Frigate ship"

Constanze then appeared next to us to listen to me, I guess she's done with her hunting.

"It's time for us to go," a familiar voice said to us, we turned around to see Diana staring at us.

"What do you mean?" Lotte said.

"You promised that you would bring me to Philadelphia on the agreement that I wouldn't turn you four in" Diana explained, "And I know that you are not a woman to go back on her word"

Lotte looked around for a moment and then sighed, "...Fine, we'll all get ready and then head off…"

I didn't feel ready to leave, it felt very safe here, and with the war that just started, I didn't feel excited to venture out into the Colonies any time soon.

For the next few hours, we got back on our European clothing, bidding goodbye to the locals and headed off into the forest, heading for Philadelphia.

We hopped onboard the carriage and made our way across the path.

The frigate was still on my mind, I had no idea what it meant or how I could find it, it was all I thought about until the carriage rattled and suddenly stopped moving.

I and the rest of the crew jumped out of the carriage to see what just happened. We saw that one of the front wheels had broken, and both horses appeared to have run away, "What happened!?" I asked.

Lotte climbed off the carriage to face us, "I don't know! The horses just got scared for no reason and ran away"

"Hello! Who is there!?" a voice called out from inside the woods, a man wearing a military uniform appeared to us, "Oh, it's just a few civilians," he said.

"Who are you?" Lotte asked the man.

"Benedict Arnold," the man said.

"What are you doing here?" Diana asked.

"I'm on a mission," Benedict began to explain, "I'm heading for Fort Ticonderoga to take it from the British"

Diana looked shocked, "Fort Ticonderoga? You have no men behind you!"

"Well, I was hoping to recruit men along the way," Benedict said.

"Even an army of ten civilian rebels will never match the British army at that Fort," Diana said.

"Please, you have to have more faith than that," Benedict laughed, "Well, I best be on my way, sorry about the broken wheel I see there," he then began to walk away until we heard many voices cry out nearby.

"Then cheer, cheer, the green mountaineer! Then cheer, cheer, the green mountaineer!" the voices sang.

Benedict looked around confused, and then walked towards the voices, Dian began to follow him.

"What are you doing?" Lotte whispered angerly.

"We can't just let him take the fort" Diana whispered back. Lotte then chased after her, and it wasn't long till everyone else followed behind.

We then saw an army, not an army of redcoats but instead, an army of green-coated military men, they all stopped singing when they saw Benedict approaching them, "Who is this?" the general of the army asked.

"Who are you?!" Benedict asked.

"I asked you that first, don't be rude," The general said with a smirk.

Benedict sighed, "I am Benedict Arnold," he said.

"Benedict Arnold…" The general said as he approached him, "Ethan Allen" he said as he handed out his hand.

Hesitantly, Benedict shook Ethan's hand, "Well met…"

Ethan smiled, "So, my friend Arnold, why are you out here today?"

"I'm on a mission to take Fort Ticonderoga" Benedict explained.

Ethan looked at him with a shocked yet happy look, "Well isn't that a wonderful coincidence! My men are off to do the same thing" Ethan then turned to his army and rose his hands, "We are the Green Mountain Boys!" he yelled, all of the men cheered as a response, "So, where's your army then?" Ethan asked, "Are those five ladies behind you your army?" he said sarcastically, his army behind him laughed.

Benedict looked behind him to see us, "Why in gods name did you follow me?!" he yelled. Benedict turned back to Ethan, "I was hoping to find worthy and willing men on the path to join me," he explained, "And it appears I have found a few"

Ethan chuckled, "You are very kind, but it'll be us recruiting you"

Benedict looked at him strangely, "Who do you work for? Who sent you to do this?"

"We owe no allegiance, our leader is the law and the law is our own" Ethan said proudly.

Benedict, angrily mumbling, rummaged through his vest and took out a small piece of paper, handing it to Ethan.

Ethan took the paper and looked at it. "I was sent here by the Massachusetts congress to take the fort for the rebel cause" Benedict explained.

"Yes, I can see that by reading this," Ethan said as he handed Benedict back the paper, "That's very cute," Ethan sighed, "I'm sure you're a very nice man, Benedict, but I'm afraid we won't be bowing to some flimsy loner military leader"

"I expect to lead this mission and bring back the congress good results!" Benedict angrily said.

Ethan sighed again, "Well if it matters that much to you then I suppose I can have you lead us"

"No!" a random soldier in Ethan's army yelled, "We are only Loyal to Ethan!" all the other men around him started cheering, the same soldier threw his gun on the ground, "If we are to be led by another man other than Ethan Allen, then we shall go home"

"_Yeah!"_ All the other soldiers cried.

Ethan looked at Benedict with a snarky smirk on his face, "Well, I guess my men don't want you to lead them. But don't worry friend, I'll be loyal to you and your little lady friends behind you" he said sarcastically.

Benedict stood there for a while before speaking, "Alright!" He yelled out, "Ethan Allen shall be the one to guide us"

All the soldiers turned around and cheered at the news.

Ethan laughed, "Alright boys! Let's sack those British bastards!" all the soldiers cheered harder, "And let me introduce you to your second in command!" Ethan yelled as he grabbed Benedict by the arm and pulled him close, "Benedict Arnold!" in response, all the soldiers laughed at Benedict as if it was some joke. They all began to march towards the fort.

"How humiliating…" Lotte remarked.

"Come on!" Diana said, "We have to follow them!"

"That wasn't part of the deal," Sucy said, "You aren't one to add to deals for your own personal gain are you?"

Diana groaned, "You can't just expect me to let them take the British fort! I have to warn the soldiers!" she then ran off following the Green Mountain Boys, and of course we all followed.

As Sucy caught up she grabbed Diana by the collar and pointed her flintlock at Diana's head, "We may have to resort to other methods of clearing our names from British records if you do not cooperate with the original deal," she said.

"For bloody sake! You're not pirates! You are merchants!" Diana cried out, "Let me go!

I and the rest caught up to see what was going on, I would be shocked at seeing Sucy point a gun at Diana but I almost expected it to happen at least once with her on our crew.

"Lotte!" Diana called, "Can't you see that this is unfair?"

Lotte sighed, "Well none of us here really care about this revolution and who wins it, so this side mission here doesn't at all benefit us, so yes I do see this idea of yours unfair"

"Then why are you bringing me to Philadelphia?" Diana asked.

"Well for one, you'll rat us out if we don't and for another, I wish this war to end as soon as possible, you are a good woman, and I hope you'll serve as a good diplomat to set matters right without violence" Lotte explained.

"If it's a war you wish to end then let me prevent the rising tensions!" Diana said.

"We are not but humble merchants, Diana," Lotte said, "We will all be killed if we try to engage in this, it's a bloody miracle we didn't back in Lexington"

Diana stood there looking around, she didn't know what to say, and Sucy was still willing to pull the trigger.

"I have a plan…" Diana began to explain, "It's likely that the army will be heading towards a nearby settlement up ahead, they are going there to rest for the day before heading to the fort. While they aren't looking we can jam all the muskets making them unable to fire and therefore unable to take the fort"

The four of us looked at each other thinking about Diana's offer.

"Sounds like a reasonable deal," I said, "What say you?"

Sucy lowered her gun and put in her vest, "I don't see any money, but I suppose if it can't kill us we might as well"

Lotte didn't seem convinced yet, "The British will still have working guns," she said.

"A few men may lose their lives but the army will retreat quickly," Diana said.

Lotte handed out her hand, "You have yourself a deal"

Diana shook Lotte's hand, "Let's not waste any more time"

The five us ran ahead into the settlement that Diana spoke of, and the Green Mountain Boys came just as we thought they would. We hid behind one of the houses until Diana came to us with a bag of uniforms in her hand.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"They will surely recognize us from before, we have to disguise ourselves," Diana said as she handed us the uniforms.

As the Green Mountain Boys rested we sneaked into the many homes and broke their guns, just to be safe we replaced some gunpowder with gravel.

Diana woke up the next morning to army chanting, she looked out to see an army mixed of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys and Benedict Arnold's Militia Men. She ran over to us all to wake us up. Diana covered her long hair with a hood along with Sucy just so the soldiers wouldn't get suspicious.

"You five!" a voice called out to us. We turned to see Ethan Allen approaching us, we quickly stood up straight in formation.

"You're one of Arnold's men aren't you?" Ethan asked.

Diana nodded as she didn't want to reveal her voice.

Ethan looked at us with a face of doubt, "You look quite...young and delicate...how old are you?" he asked.

"16...all of us," Diana said in a deeper voice.

That, of course, wasn't our age but it seemed to convince Ethan.

Ethan laughed, "Young yet still willing to fight! I love it" he turned around and started walking back to the army, "Come on lads! United we stand, divided we fall"

We all grabbed our guns and marched towards the army.

"How did we get into this?" Sucy asked.

"Well, we need to watch the operation to see if our plan worked" Diana answered.

The five of us all marched along with the Militia Men until we reached the fort, it was a large star fort flying the British colours, but much to my surprise it was only guarded by one redcoat, and that one redcoat was asleep, it was early morning after all. Diana had a very worried face after she noticed.

We approached the fort hidden in the bushes, but when we learned that the guard was asleep we marched passed him without bother. When Diana passed the sleeping redcoat she leaned in and whispered something, "Wake up!" she whispered.

The redcoat quickly woke up and got informed of the situation, he pointed his gun at the army. Everyone looked at the redcoat with a very unimpressed look, the soldier pulled the trigger but the gun didn't fire, it appeared to be jammed. The soldier then ran away and we all began to march inside the fort once more.

"His gun was broken," Lotte whispered to Diana.

"I swear I didn't do anything to that gun!" Diana insisted.

Ethan opened the door to the fort quite easily, and we saw that every redcoat was fast asleep. Diana's worried face turned to silent panic as she saw that nobody was protecting the fort.

"Present!" Ethan ordered. The Green Mountain Boys along with the Militia all pointed their muskets at the sleeping redcoats. Diana went to scream but Lotte quickly grabbed her and covered her mouth.

"Wake up!" Ethan yelled to the redcoats.

Slowly the British soldiers woke up, when they understood their surroundings and saw the guns being pointed at them, they simply rose their hands up and surrendered.

"The fort is ours, boys!" Ethan cried out, all of the soldiers cheered in response.

"That wasn't really the plan, but at least we are still alive," Sucy remarked.

Diana with a face of disbelief sat down, she couldn't believe that these rebels took a fort from the best army of the world without firing a single shot.

Many hours had passed and Diana was still silent. The soldiers were all partying in the other room, drinking beer and laughing about, all except Benedict Arnold, who was cleaning the mess that the soldiers made in this room.

"Who are you?" Benedict asked.

The five of us quickly turned to him, "We are part of your militia, remember?" Lotte said.

"...No" Benedict softly said, "I knew who you were all a while ago, you aren't any militia, you are those girls I met along the road the other day"

We all hesitated to answer, but Lotte nodded as a response.

"Why do you follow me? What are your names?" Benedict asked.

We all give the man our names, with Diana changing her last name to stay hidden.

"That answers that question…" Benedict said, "But why did you follow me here?"

We didn't know what to say to that.

"Diana, "Lotte said to the still distressed woman, "Let us be on our way to Philadelphia"

"R-right…" Diana said as she got up.

We all rose up from our seats and walked out the door without answering Arnold's question, but he didn't follow us to get an answer.

We may have been on our way to Philadelphia but a congress meeting would happen long before Diana made her way to see it.

The librarian Ursula made her way to Philadelphia just to see the congress for herself, when she got to carpenters hall she found that the meeting was already in session. Ursula walked up to the doors and put her head to it to listen into the conversation.

"We must adopt this army into a continental army," a muffled voice said, "Take upon ourselves the pay, subsistence, clothing, armour, and ammunitions of the troops"

The voice was familiar-sounding but she couldn't name the man who it belonged to, it wasn't Washington and it most certainly wasn't Franklin.

"I hereby nominate a commander and chief to lead these troops, and that is a gentleman among us, and very well known to all of us, a gentlemen whose skill and experience as an officer, whose independent fortune, great talents and excellent universal character would commend the approbation of all the colonies better than any other person in the union. That is the Gentleman from Virginia" the voice said.

"...George?" Ursula softly said as she felt fear strike her heart, "You'll be killed…"


	13. Chapter 13 Bunker Hill

"But, lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavourable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered, by every Gentleman in the room, that I, this day, declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the Command I am honoured with"

Ursula quickly recognized that voice. It was the voice of an old friend, George Washington.

She waited outside of the building for the congress meeting to end to greet George, when the congress ended she saw George walking out of the building talking with another man next to him.

"George!" Ursula called to him.

George quickly turned to see her, he greeted her with a smile, "It's nice to see you again," he said, "I didn't think you'd return here for a while. Come let me introduce you to one of the congressmen"

Ursula walked over to meet the man standing next to George. She had seen him before but she never was fully introduced to him.

"This here is John Adams" George explained, "Statesman of Massachusetts"

John handed out his hand, "And you, I am to believe, are Ursula Calistus" he said, "I've heard much about you from Washington"

"John Adams...I've heard about you before," Ursula said as she shook his hand, "Despite living in the colony of Massachusetts for so long I've never seen you before"

"Well, I don't show my face too often…" John said with a smile.

"You were the one who supported the British soldiers that participated in the Boston Massacre," Ursula said.

John laughed, "Saying it was a Massacre makes it look much worse than it actually was, only five people were killed and it was a miscommunication on the British's part, they are not to be blamed,"

"You sound as if you are a loyalist!" Ursula laughed.

"It would be unfair to criticize England for every mistake they did regardless if it had justification or not" John went to say.

"We wish to regain our original relationship with England and establish peace," George explained.

"And you are to do that by forming a military army?" Ursula said.

George chuckled, "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace"

Ursula stood silent for a little while before speaking, "You aren't really going to be the general of the army, are you?" she asked George.

"Of course I am," George said, "I could never turn down such an honourable position"

"You could be killed!" Ursula said, worryingly.

"Washington is a skilled commander with a fair bit of experience from the French and Indian War," John said, "I have no doubt that he will keep the British at bay"

"George, may I speak with you privately for a bit?" Ursula said.

George nodded, "Please, speak your mind"

"Mister Hancock!" Adams called out to another congressman as he walked away, "Come, let me speak with you"

Both Ursula and George looked at Adams walk away before speaking, "What is that you wish to tell me?" George asked.

"I request that you decline the offer giving to you," Ursula said.

George was stunned when he heard that, "...Why?" he simply said.

"Why not give it to another man with experience, such as John Hancock over there," Ursula said while pointing to the man Adams was talking to.

"Chariot, this is a continental army, not a Massachusetts army" George explained, "While I may not be the best choice, choosing a statesman from Virginia will help secure a connection with the Colonies"

"As a general, you'd be the prime target for assassination, I'd rather you stay as a congressman away from the fighting," Ursula said. " Ever since the Shiny Chariot sank I've never seen the crew, as far as I'm aware, both Edward and Harald are dead, with only two of their descendants remaining on American soil, you and Croix are the only ones I have left"

"If that is how you feel then I shall make this promise to you, Martha, Croix and all my family and friends, I promise that I shall return from every battle in this war without a scratch nor a wound"

The Colonies now had a general of their own, it was a great worry to many around him if Washington could stand the might of the British Commander.

Far from American in England, a man by the name of William Howe is making his way to meet someone. He walked through the streets of London with two other men by his side, the three made their way to meet the head of the Kingdom.

The three men entered a fancy room and saw a fancily dressed man at the end of it, they all bowed in his presence, "Greetings, Your Majesty" William said to the man.

The man smiled as they entered, "Generals, Henry Clinton, John Burgoyne and William Howe, I welcome you during this fine day"

"It's always a fine day when called to meet you, your majesty," William said.

"You are far too kind, General Howe," The King said, "I have called you here to discuss the matters of the American Colonies. I'm sure you no doubt have heard of the taking of Fort Ticonderoga"

"Yes, your majesty" Burgoyne said, "It was an impressive move on the rebel's part"

King George The Third looked down at the ground and at the window before speaking, it was obvious that he wasn't happy about recent events, "Impressive indeed," He said, "It is clear that we need a strong commander on American soil to put some sense into the colonists, and that is why the parliament and I have elected to send you three gentlemen to America to lead the British Army"

The three men, including William, were shocked at The King's words, "Your majesty, what about General Thomas Gage?" General Clinton said.

"Disbanded," The king said, "A good man but not strong enough against a couple of rebels, it appears, so that is why I am passing down the job to you"

"Perhaps you can disband me as well," William nervously said, "Surely there is a better commander out there who will take my place"

The King laughed, "You are a very humble and respectable man, General Howe," He said, "But I am of the opinion that when once these rebels will have felt a smart blow, they will submit, and no situation can change my fixed resolution, either to bring the colonies to a due obedience or to cast them off"

The three men all stared at him, not knowing what to say.

"...So" The King began to say, "Will you accept this proposal to fight for the crown?"

"Yes, your majesty, I will accept this kind offer," Clinton said.

"I will, as well, accept this honour," Burgoyne said.

William stuttered as he spoke, "...I will gladly accept the offer as well, your majesty"

The three men were dismissed and soon were set course for America, ready to lead the British Army.

As William was sitting in his cabin a redcoat entered his room, "General Howe" The redcoat said, "I apologize for bothering you"

"No need," William said, "What is it you wish to speak with me about?"

"It is about the American colonies, I can tell you first hand that I know of the conditions that the British are currently in" The redcoat explained, "The city of Boston has been under siege for almost a month"

"Yes, I've heard" William responded.

"It was a surprise to many of us that you'd join us as general, you once made a vow to never fight against your American brothers," The redcoat said.

William sighed, "I highly respect the Americans and their political views, but I must be loyal to his majesty King George The Third"

"Do you perhaps have a plan on how to break the siege?" The redcoat asked.

"Well, I would have to view the situation in person before making a plan," William said as he turned to the redcoat, "What's your name, boy?" William asked.

"Andrew Hanbridge, sir," the redcoat said, "I am but a simple footsoldier part of the British Army"

William looked down at his desk for a moment, thinking. After many long days the ship reached Boston, and William quickly took place as general. William began to make plans on how to break the siege, unknown to him was that an unwanted listener was eavesdropping on the conversation. The female soldier, Amanda, quickly fled to her comrades to warn them about the British plan.

"Captain!" Amanda yelled to the general, "I've got some news for ya"

"What is it, man?" The general asked.

"The lobsters are planning to break our walls by setting up defense at Bunker Hill," Amanda explained.

The general looked at her with suspension, "How do you know this?" he asked.

"Just spied into one of their meetings now, sir" Amanda responded.

Not long after, a few random civilians ran up to the general as well, "They are planning an attack on Bunker Hill!" they said while trying to catch their breath.

"So it is true…" The general said, "Follow me men!" he called out, "Let us dig in for a British attack on Bunker Hill"

The night was dark, but the rebels had to prepare, they dug into Bunker Hill and prepared for the British to advance.

"Aye, captain!" Amanda called out.

"What is it?" the general replied.

"Breed's Hill ain't too far from here, should we set up defences there as well?" Amanda suggested.

The general smiled, "That's a fine idea soldier" he said before calling out to his men to head to Breed's Hill.

It was a race against the clock, the rebels had to get prepared before morning. When morning dawned however, the rebels were ready for any attack the British were to throw at them. The rebel soldiers cheered and laughed in celebration...that is until a cannon fire blew the side of the hill, killing a few rebels.

All of Boston woke with the loud blast of cannon fire, it appeared that the British quickly took notice of the rebel's position. Croix Meridies, the redcoat in disguise who was in Boston watched from the Man O'War the rebels being shot at with the cannon of British ships. She watched as a large line of British soldiers were marching towards the hill.

It wasn't long before the rebels could look over from the hill and see the slow and intimidating British forces advancing towards them.

"Do not fire yet!" the general of the rebels yelled out, "Do not fire till you see the white of their eyes"

William Howe, general of the British side, ordered his men to stand still and present their guns. It was then that the general for the rebels ordered his men to present their guns, and fire a volley at the redcoats.

"FIRE!" the two generals yelled. The battle had begun. The rebels were at a height advantage, and so the British side was quickly pushed back, but the battle was far from over. The British tried to make their way back up, only to be pushed back down once again by a volley of rebel shots.

"Make ready!" The rebel general called out. All the soldiers loaded their guns in response. Once every soldier loaded their guns, the general made another order, "Present!" he yelled, calling every soldier to point their guns at the British, "Fire!" the general yelled out, and the loud muskets fired another volley at the British, killing many and pushing the rest down the hill, but not without cost.

Amanda found herself a target to British volleys, she soon got shot in the leg and fell down the hill. Amanda was in much pain, but that didn't stop her from trying to fight, she tried to make her way back up the hill to continue fighting. Amanda stopped to a halt when the fire of a musket shot her hat off and revealed her colourful hair.

Amanda turned around to see the redcoat, Andrew Hanbridge, holding his gun towards her.

"You are a woman…" he said with a shocked look.

Amanda walked over to Andrew with her musket in hand, "Yeah, what of it?" she said right before trying to stab him in the neck with her bayonet.

Andrew avoided the attack and went for a strike of his own. Amanda deflected the attack and pushed Andrews musket aside with hers, she tried to advance and punch him in the face, only for him to grab her fist and kick her in the stomach.

Amanda dropped her gun in surprise. Andrew stomped on her musket, breaking it in two, he then advance towards Amanda with a bayonet ready to stab her.

Amanda grabbed a small dagger for it was the only thing she had left to defend herself with. She waited for Andrew to make the first move, and when he did, Amanda sidestepped and went in to shank him in the neck.

Andrew quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her close, he turned her around and started choking her with the musket.

"You should've never come here," Andrew said, "I would be willing to spare you if you return home"

"I'm am no delicate lady" Amanda said before hitting Andrew's jaw with her shoulder and escaping his grasp. Amanda then stabbed Andrew in the arm, causing him to drop his gun and fall on the ground, screaming in agony.

Amanda went to climb back up the hill, but she turned again to see Andrew in much pain and suffering from the dagger still deep in his arm. Amanda knew from personal experience what it is like to get a blade wound in the arm, and it hurt like hell.

Amanda sighed and walked over to Andrew and kneeled down in front of him.

"What...what the hell do you want?" Andrew said, trying to recover from the immense pain.

Amanda rummaged through her coat and brought out a bottle of some sort, she opened it and started pouring it on the stab wound, "A friend of mine gave me this, I don't see myself getting too badly wounded in the future so I might as well use it here" Amanda then grabbed Andrew's hat and put it on, as well as grabbing his gun before walking back up the hill, "That potion should keep you from dying, if not then I'll see you hell"

Amanda climbed back up the hill ready to fight once more, but she returned hearing her comrades fall back.

"What's going on!?" Amanda yelled.

"We're out of ammunition!" the general explained, "We must fall back!"

Amanda was shocked to hear that, but she had to fall back with them, even with her wounded leg.

The British soldiers made their third march up the hill, and watched as the Patriots ran away. The redcoats all cheered, but William looked around the area with horror. Thousands of red-coated corpses were scattered across the hill.

Andrew made his way to general Howe, holding the wound on his arm with his left hand and holding the bloody knife that made the wound with his right, "So now you see" Andrew said to William, "This will be a dangerous rebellion"

William looked at him with that face of horror, "This is not a rebellion, it is far bigger,"

William and Andrew watched as the families ran up from Boston to their now dead beloveds and cried over their bodies.

"This is war…" William ominously said.

While the British were suffering a great loss of men, myself, Lotte and the rest of the crew were dandily making our way through the countryside in a carriage, with the main goal of reaching Philadelphia and establish Diana as a British diplomat.

I looked out the carriage for a moment and looked around, I saw in front of me a fair-skinned girl working on a farm. She had bright orange hair and mud on her face, she seemed sad, so I waved at her to try and lift her spirits, but when she saw me she didn't wave back, she just shunned herself away and continued working.

"What's wrong with that girl?" I asked.

"That girl is living life as a prison" Sucy responded.

"What does that mean?" I asked again.

"It means she's a slave" Diana explained, "Taken away from her home and family at a young age to work forever until death for some rich person"

"That's horrible!" I cried out.

Diana nodded, "For a place that wants freedom from the British, they sure do love imprisoning random innocents because of skin colour"

"England is guilty of the same thing," Sucy said.

"We should free her!" I said with glee.

"And then what?" Diana said.

"She'll live as a free citizen in America!" I said proudly.

Diana sighed, "Africans like her aren't considered citizens here, at most they are the property of the rich.

"Well...maybe we can bring her back home!" I suggested, "We have a ship, we could sail her back to Africa to see her family and friends.

"And then what? She is to be taken by the slave traders once again to be sold right back to her original owner?" Diana spoke back, "Believe me, I wish I could free her, I really wish I could free all the slaves, but they are damned by the power that Europe has over them and their continent" she explained.

We all sat in a depressing silence after that, but I still had hope. I looked out of the carriage and looked at the farmer girl one again, "I swear...one day I will free you" I silently said to myself.

I quickly got distracted when a man in a military uniform rode past us on a horse, he seemed familiar to me.

"That looks like the statesman of Virginia…" Diana said.

I gasped, "George Washington!" I cried out.

"Lotte!" Diana called out, "Follow that man!"

* * *

Obviously, the main thing that was missing from Little Witch Academia was brutal bloody fights between the characters and depressing talks about slavery.

**King George The Third.**

Not to be confused with general George Washington, George was a common name back then. In the American Revolution, there was no real clear cut good or bad guys, while many a book or movie likes to depict the British as evil and America as the final puzzle piece to civilization, it wasn't like that in the real event. Both sides had their own reasons for doing things and I think both were respectable. King George the Third was king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820. He was the eldest son of Fredrick, Prince of Wales and grandson of King George the Second. George grew up as a shy child and took up private schooling lessons along with his brother (Prince Edward) by age eight he could read and write in both German and English and took to studying things like mathematics, history, French and a whole batch of other things. King George is sometimes referred to as "The Mad King" not because of his "tyranny" over the American colonies but because he went a bit mental after losing the colonies and never fully recovered until the war of 1812.

**Slavery.**

A depressing reality of the age of colonization is that most European nations had a slave trade, basically importing African slaves to their land or colonies to work until death. It may seem a bit dark to add something like this to the family-friendly Little Witch Academia, but when telling a story about the American revolution I feel that it is absolutely necessary to represent slavery within it, for while history may have some great moments, some moments in history are very sad and terrible, but we have to remember them and represent them the way it was. I believe it to be an insult to history and an insult to those who managed to survive the brutal life of slavery if I didn't represent it.


	14. Chapter 14 1775, July 3rd

While the original plan was to escort Diana to Philadelphia, George Washington just happened to pass by our carriage, changing the plan to letting Diana have a political talk with George. When Lotte heard the call from Diana to follow that man, she quickly changed direction without question and made a dash towards the horseman.

"You there!" Diana called out, "Stop where you ride!"

George halted to a stop and turned to face the carriage riding towards him, "What is it now?" he angerly said.

As we caught up, Diana jumped out of the carriage to meet face to face with George. As she approached him, she crossed her arms and cleared her throat, "Statesman of Virginia" she began to say, "George Washington, it is a pleasure to meet you finally," Diana held out her hand, "I am by the grace of God-"

"Diana Cavendish," George said with a face of relief and nostalgia.

Diana was shocked, but she quickly regained confidence and spoke, "You...know my name?"

George climbed off of his horse to meet Dian on level ground, "The green and white hair, the serious look and posture, it was no doubt that you are a member of the Cavendish family" he said, "Why are you out this far without your protectors and with these merchants?"

"I hoped to reach the congress to try and establish peace between Great Britain and her colonies," Diana responded, "But you alone will work just as well"

"Speak swiftly miss Cavendish, for I am awaited elsewhere," George said.

Diana looked confused, "Where is that you wish to be?"

"I am to meet up with the Militiamen up near Boston town" George explained, "For I have been elected general of the soon to be Continental Army"

"You plan to go to war?!" Diana said in shock.

George sighed, "I do wish to establish peace between us and our British brothers, but until the eyes of his majesty and the continental congress meet, we must fight"

"Why not be loyal to his majesty and pay the taxes?" Diana argued, "The debt that England is in was mostly caused by them protecting the colonies from the French, don't you see it fair to pay them back?"

"I far see it fair for his majesty to tax the colonies without consent, instead of adding a representative in the British parliament, his majesty sees it fit to establish the taxes by force, burning down our homes and destroying the lives of our people," George said.

As this argument was going, I saw a shadow in the forest next to us, it looked to be a being flying a broom, landing on the forest floor and hiding behind a tree to watch the event.

Diana went to speak again until Lotte interrupted her,"Waaaashington!" she called out as she jumped off the carriage to meet George. "General of the Militiamen I hear. So how's about you bring out your army and scare away the redcoats around my ship and I pay you back 10 shillings?"

George looked at Lotte with much confusion, "May I ask who are you?"

"Lotte Jansson" Lotte answered, "I am a simple Finnish merchant who needs her ship back"

George had a face of shock and disbelief after hearing that name, "...Jansson?" he said.

Lotte nervously nodded.

George smiled, "...The last words I heard from your mother was her telling me that one day you would become a grand witch, and be one of many to help restore magic to the world…"

"...What?" Lotte simply said.

George chuckled to himself, "Course Harald always told me that if he was to raise you he'd raise you to be the most powerful Viking in the baltic seas, at the time I took it as a joke but…"

We were all very confused at Washington's words.

George looked at us with glee, "What a wonderful coincidence, that I not only find Diana Cavendish but also Lotte Jansson, in truth I have missed you both"

Diana spoke up, "Mister Washington, could you please go back to the original subject?"

George acted as if he didn't even hear Diana, "I doubt you two remember me, you were both very young at the time," George said as he kneeled down in front of Lotte and Diana, "But I am loyal to my word. So tell me, what can I do for my two goddaughters?"

We were all shocked at Georges words, according to him, the parents of the two were such good friends with him that they made him their children's godfather.

Diana didn't seem all that phased, "A good actor you are Mister Washington but if you were really my godfather I would've heard about you long before I made my way to colonies"

Diana made a good point, but Lotte was holding her chin as if she actually believed him. "Well...the name George Washington did sound familiar, and clearly you possess knowledge of my family" Lotte then handed out her hand, "I believe you to be my godfather"

George smiled as he shook Lotte's hand, "Well, I'm glad at least one family saw to it that I was mentioned a generation down"

Lotte crossed her arms, "So..._father,_"

"Godfather…" Sucy corrected behind her.

"Yes yes, godfather Washington," Lotte said, "If we are family...by coincidence...would you please help get my ship back?"

George gave us a smirk as he hopped back on his horse, "I'll see what I can do" he said as he rode off along the path.

"...We weren't done talking, you know!" Diana said, "Lotte, you wouldn't mind it if we follow him, right?"

"Not at all" Lotte answered as she got back on the carriage.

The rest of us got into the back of the carriage, and quickly made way along the path, following Washington.

Hours and hours it felt like riding, we couldn't even see George, and we had no idea if this was even the right path. Eventually, Diana ordered Lotte to stop.

"I believe now is a good time to say farewell, I see a settlement not too far from here," Diana said as she jumped out of the carriage.

"What about our promise?" Lotte asked.

"I'd rather not push you any further, you may have not gotten me to talk with the continental congress but you have let me speak with one of the congressmen, I will not turn you in, even after your crimes," Diana said before walking off into the settlement.

"...So, what are we to do now?" I asked.

Lotte sighed, "Sit and hope that Washington frees the Luna Nova from the British"

It was getting dark. Diana was weary venturing into the settlement if a rebel were to notice her and recognize her someone might get hurt. Nevertheless, she went into the town, hoping to find a cloak or something. As she was heading towards the many homes and buildings she heard something fly past her.

"Diana!" A voice called behind her.

Diana quickly turned around to see who it was, she had a hand on her wand just in case. The figure behind her was Ursula Calistus riding a broom, she softly landed and gave Diana a quiet wave, "I'm sorry, should I say Miss Cavendish?" she said.

"Who are you?" Diana asked.

Ursula smiled, "My name is Ursula Calistus"

"And why have you followed me?" Diana asked crossing her arms.

"You are far from the safe ship that brought you here," Ursula said, "Why have you wondered this far?"

"How did you know that I was hiding in a ship?" Diana asked.

"A friend of mine told me, perhaps you know of General Meridies?" Ursula answered. "She...I mean...he has been looking for you all over"

Diana sighed, "And I suppose he sent you here to bring me back. Fair enough, I will accept defeat"

"Why did you wonder this far?" Ursula asked.

"I was hoping to reach the continental congress and speak with the congressmen, I would like to end this war before it starts" Diana explained.

"Oh, good" Ursula said with glee, "I can help you get there"

Diana looked at her strangely, "...Why? You are loyal to the British are you not? You must have come here under the general's orders to capture me and return me home"

"You are a good witch and a good diplomat, I'm willing to defy orders from a friend and deny my duty as a witch to protect you if it means I can bring you to stop this war" Ursula proudly said.

Diana smiled, "...Thank you so very much"

Diana got on the broom with Ursula and began flying towards Pennsylvania, at the same time, George was making his way to meet his army for the first time. On the path, he rides past a single redcoat, standing alone, the familiar redcoat looks at him with a mischievous smile.

George is hit with shock as the fire of a musket shot echoes throughout the valley and forces his horse to freak out and make him fall off. He quickly got up and dusted himself off, and turned to the redcoat who was approaching him. He was very angry and ready to yell at the soldier, but when he saw the redcoats face he couldn't help but smile.

"...That was a cruel and dirty trick, Croix" George said, "But after many long years I can't help but be happy to see you"

Croix took off her hat and smiled, "Nice to see you again, old man"

George laughed, "Old man? We're about the same age you know"

"Yes, maybe so, but I still look but a maidan while you have quite a few wrinkles popping up," Croix said with a smirk.

"Well I'm terribly sorry I don't hold up to your incredible witch hygiene spells" George replied. "Come follow me, the army isn't far from here I believe"

Croix laughed, "Well, army is a bit of a generous term, I already took a look at them for myself, and I must say there isn't anything that interesting"

George got back on his horse and began to slowly ride along the path so Croix could follow close behind.

"I see that you have cut your hair since the last time we spoke" George pointed out, "I almost didn't recognize you at first"

"It's good to stay in disguise when you are a female trying to be part of the British army," Croix said.

"Fair enough," George responded.

"By the way, you haven't seen Diana Cavendish, have you?" Croix asked.

George thought for a minute, would he betray his goddaughter, or lie to one of his dearest friends.

"...No, I have not met with the witch yet' George answered.

"Well if you find her I would like it if you bring her back to me, she's been missing for months now," Croix said.

"You'd think she'd remember me" George quietly said.

"What?" Croix said after hearing nothing but mumbling.

"I said I wonder if she would remember me" George replied.

"How old was she when you last saw her?" Croix pondered.

"She was quite young," George said, "Hiding behind her mother's leg when meeting scary General Washington," George said with a smile.

Croix chuckled, "She's grown now, you two are very different, politically. She might not be happy to see you, regardless if she remembers you or not"

"I'm...sure she would be willing to have a calm debate with a congressman, like myself," George said.

"She didn't remember me, or at least she didn't recognize me" Croix explained, "Though maybe it's for the better. Me and Chariot aren't shown in a good light overseas"

"Hopefully one day the people will learn the truth of it all," George said.

Soon both Croix and George made their way to the Militiamen in a camp. The area was gritty, the men weren't properly dressed, they were drinking bottles of alcohol and had dirt on their faces. One of the men was eating meat right from their hands, taking bites directly with no forks or plates or anything. They were all chatting away with no sense of order, sitting down drunk and tired, their guns lying on the ground often times getting stepped on or tripped on.

"Stand up!" George yelled as he approached the camp.

The men all noticed immediately and quickly yet clumsily got up and stood in a mostly straight line. George still on his horse made his way in the tunnel of minutemen, he looked sternly and judgmentally at both sides. He soon took notice of a slightly short feminine man in the line, he was wearing a tricorn hat like the rest of the men but had a little bit of bright colourful hair showing. George looked at him suspiciously but soon shook it off as nothing and went to have a look at the rest of the men.

George ordered the men to all stand in a line with their guns to practice a volley. The men all held their guns against their chest instead of upright and had been standing in a hunched down pose, some with their knees bent and legs apart.

"Present!" George yelled out.

The men all pointed their guns forward-ish, some were pointed slightly up and others slightly down. The butt along with the stock of the gun, for the most part, was on the men's shoulders.

"Fire!" George loudly ordered.

Gunshots were heard soon after that, but not all at the same time, some of the men fired too late or too early and some men didn't even fire at all.

"Reload!" George gave another order.

The men held up their guns and each reloaded in a different way, some taking much longer than others.

Goerge sighed and got off his horse to meet Croix, "I had the worst of expectations, but these...men...even failed that"

"Have you spoken to your junior officers yet?" Croix asked.

"I have, but they hardly deserve even that honour. I have to teach them how to buy ammunition, how to hunt for food, how to set up a proper camp, how to count men…" Goerge went on and on until he turned back to Croix, "They are worthless to this cause"

"Is it really that bad?" Croix said with a smile, "Me and Chariot always believed that you could command even the worst army of soldiers"

"These are not soldiers, Croix!" George quickly said, "They have no records, no experience. they are weak with their victories being mere luck. Their sense of pride has been turned into arrogance and they haven't even the slightest bit of discipline

Croix toon another look at the men and how they went straight back to drinking and chatting after the gun volley training, "It's...that bad"

"Let us pray that both God and Beatrix will help us through these hard times," George said.

"I wish the best of luck, friend, on training this army," Croix said as she began to walk away.

"Wait!" George said as he landed a hand on Croix's shoulder, "If you mean to leave then you may do so, but I request that you stay here and help me sort out this mess"

Croix slowly turned around, "...I know nothing of modern warfare, but I shall try"

It quickly became night time, and instead of making our way towards the settlement me and the rest of the crew thought it fit to sleep in the carriage without needing to pay for anything, however, I couldn't sleep, the hardwood floor was worse than the rocking hammocks and the cold forest ground, I caught up to see Sucy, Lotte and Constanze all sleeping in their own areas. I quietly stood up and jumped out of the back of the carriage, I leaned on the wheels and looked up at the beautiful night sky and all the stars.

I thought about the vision I had back at the village, for some reason, a goal in my life is to find a frigate ship, but I then thought about my mother. For some reason she was the one who gave me the clue, and during the whole vision, a koto was being played by seemingly no one, it reminded me of home...I was missing Japan. I missed the cherry blossom trees I missed the farm me, my mother and my father all tended to. I missed the music that my mother taught me to play, I missed the rice that my father taught me to farm. I missed my friends I missed my many siblings, I missed it all. When I left I wanted to become a great sailor and navigator just like Shiny Chariot, I wanted to explore the world, but somehow I got roped into this political mess that was causing a war to happen right on this soil of land, and I wanted nothing more than to go home and see my parents.

I sighed and walked back to the back of the carriage, but I stopped when I saw a shining light in the forest, my curiosity was overwhelmed and I walked over to see what it was. As I got closer the light appeared to be a figure of something, the figure of a man with his back turned against me. He was wearing little clothing and had darker skin with markings across his body.

"Um...Hello? Sir?" I said as I approached. He didn't move.

"What are you doing out this late?" I said.

"...Akko" The man said with his back still facing towards me.

I was shocked, "...H-how do you-"

I was cut off when he quickly turned around and looked at me, "Atsugo Kagari!" He yelled out.

He fully turned around, he had trinkets on his body, a necklace as well as earrings, a royal cloth around his chest, and a head crest of some sort.

I screamed, "Who-who are you?! How do you know my name!?"

The man stood up straight, "I am...Montezuma" he said proudly, "...But that does not matter for I am long gone from this world with only you as my saviour"

I was very scared and confused, "Wh-what do you mean!?"

The man aggressively grabbed my shoulders and shook me, "Listen to me Kagari!" he yelled, "The magic world needs you!"

"Th-the world of what!?" I screamed.

Montezuma let go and turned around once more, "All the other magic schools disagreed with me, saying that you were nothing more than just a commoner girl that has absolutely zero magic in her blood"

Quickly, Montezuma turned back to me and grabbed me again, "LIES! All of it!" he yelled, "It is not Diana The First who will find the Grand Triskelion, nor is it Ursula or Chariot! It's you! It must be you! I'm not sure if it will be the you of this era or the you 300 years from now, but it shall be you!"

"What are you saying!?" I yelled.

Montezuma kept ignoring what I said, "I would tell you to go the Magic school of my kin, but I am afraid that even they will soon be obliterated from the land by the Spanish...the last bit of my culture...forever gone from this world" Montezuma then held his hand to his face, I watched as tears rolled down his face and how he looked down in great shame, "I still remember that day," He began to say, "That day when the gods came and destroyed us, everyone tries to tell me that it was Cortés, but I know who it really was, the God Quetzalcoatl came and destroyed my greatness along with all the Aztec people...and I couldn't...I couldn't" he was clearly crying underneath his hands.

After a while, he shook it off and turned back to me, "Woodward...I've been begging her to give me the keys to the Grand Triskelion so I could give it to you but to no success, if you can somehow convince her that you are worthy of the honour, then you can finally restore magic to the world and please the gods above us" Montezuma then grabbed a knife out of thin air and gave it to me, "And when that day comes, I want you to set an example, make the final sacrifice for the gods so they never come down to haunt the world as they did hundreds of years ago"

After he spoke he started glowing even more than he already was, and suddenly disappeared in a big flash of light.

I was so overwhelmed that I fainted on the spot right there.


	15. Chapter 15, 1754, April 5th-July 2nd

**Author's note.**

**Well, it's been a while, hopefully, this longer than usual chapter will be a good apology for the wait. I also decided to give this specific chapter more of an "Anime" feel, and I'm still not sure if I regret that choice or not... Anyways I apologise for any future events were it'll take ages for a chapter to come out, however, you should never lose that faith of this thing ending, no matter how long it'll take for me to publish a single chapter I will finish this story, I have so many great ideas for future chapters and historical events that I could never abandon this project that easily.**

* * *

The morning felt much calmer than normal, in addition to the nice bed, the sound of rushing water also filled my head. I had to wake up eventually, so I opened my eyes slowly, as the blur began to fade I saw in front of me a figure. It appeared to be someone in a dark blue cloak with bright red hair, it was only when I fully opened my eyes that I saw who it was.

I jumped up and screamed, "Wha- what the-why are you-" I said in distress.

"Good morning, George!" the woman said cheerfully.

It was then that I recognized her, "You-you're that...that French spy" I said.

The woman looked to the side and scratched her cheek, "Well the French part is correct…"

"You're that witch!" I yelled, "What are you doing here?!"

"You're on my ship, remember?" She said,

"You kidnapped me!" I said breathing heavily from the scare.

The woman smiled, "Well technically you decided to come here on your own will…" she then held up a small plate with a teacup on it, "Look! I made you tea!" she said.

"Were you watching me sleep?!" I asked.

"It would've been rude to wake you up and I wanted to make sure the tea was hot," Ursula said as she handed me the tea.

I grabbed the plate slowly with a weary look, "...Thank...thank you…" I said,

I went to take a sip but I then looked up to see Ursula staring at me with a bright smile and hopeful eyes. I put the plate down on a crate next to me, "It's poison, isn't it?" I said,

"...What?" Ursula said with a tilted face.

"I know you witches, " I began to say, "You make devilish potions to torture people with"

Ursula shrugged, "Well my aunt knew a few things about potions but that was about it in my family, and it was never really passed down to me"

I sighed, got up from my bed and walked upstairs to the top deck. Yep, I was still on that ship owned by that bloody witch, I thought about ways to escape while standing there.

"Wait!" I heard Ursula yell below me, "It's not poison! I swear!" she ran up to the top deck and stood in front of me and took a large sip of the tea, "See? I feel fine! It's not poison!" she cried as she handed me the plate.

I looked at it for a moment, "...Ursula, you drank the whole cup"

Ursula squealed, "Ah! Je suis vraiment désolé!" she yelled as she shook my hand violently, "I'll go make another cup for you!" Ursula said as she ran off towards the captain's den.

As I watched I was shocked by another voice behind me.

"Morning, Washington," the voice said.

I quickly turned around to see who it was, "...It's you...Croix...is it?"

Croix nodded, "Nice to see you still alive after sleeping on a witches ship"

I noticed that Croix also had a cup of tea in her hand, as did everyone else on the ship, in fact, no one was even working that much, they were all just drinking tea.

"George!" Ursula yelled to me from the other side of the ship.

I turned around and saw her running towards me with a teacup raised in her hand, "I have your tea!" Ursula called out.

As she got closer she almost tripped over herself but balanced herself out and handed me the tea. I grabbed the plate and looked at the cup.

"It's not poison!" Ursula said, "Cross my heart and hope to die!"

I sighed and slowly took a sip of the tea, this is a death wish, I thought to myself, today is the day I die, General George Washington, poisoned by a witch out on the ocean after a disgraceful military defeat to the French.

"...This is actually good!" I said as I lowered the teacup.

Ursula's face lit up with delight, she immediately hugged me tight while laughing.

"Get off of me you witch!" I said as I pushed her away, "One good cup of tea is not nearly enough to redeem a woman of witchcraft and evil! You unholy demons must be rid of this world!"

Ursula's happy grin quickly turned to sadness after I said that, her eyes became watery and it wasn't long before she started crying loudly and waterfalls of tears rolled down her.

"...Ursula?" I said,

She kept crying. I had no idea it was physically possible to create a puddle out of your own tears…

"Okay okay!" I said, "I'm sorry for saying that…"

After hearing that, the waterfalls coming from Ursula's eyes stopped, "R- *sniff* really?" She said while drying her eyes.

"...Yes?" I said hesitantly.

"Oh great!" she yelled as her face brightened up once again as if nothing ever happened.

Ursula went and hugged me again and rubbed her cheeks against mine, "Oh thank you! Thank you for forgiving me!" She cried out.

As she was hugging me, both I and Croix looked at each other awkwardly.

"Does she always act like this?" I said, referring to Ursula.

"Me and Ursula first met when we were around 14 years old, I think it's safe to say she hasn't changed much since," Croix said with a smile, "We sometimes call her the nickname Chariot, after the ship, because just like the ship, Ursula is very quick, cheery and has an adventurous spirit"

I nodded and began to clear my throat, "Chariot?" I said,

Ursula...or Chariot, let go of me, "What is it?

"Could you let go of me, please?" I said,

Chariot let go of me and bowed in front of me, "Pardon! Pardon!"

"Chariot, I have news concerning your ship," I said.

Chariot tilted her head, "Oh? Is there something wrong with her?"

"It...I mean she is heavily undermanned, I only counted 30 men on an 800 required ship" I pointed out.

"That's not counting the women!" Chariot said.

"Even with the women, it's still only 52 crew members, far from enough to sail a Frigate such as this one" I explained.

Chariot giggled, "Clearly you've never seen a ship manned by magic" she then turned around to face the man at the helm and threw a compass at him, "You know the route, Jack, we planned this ages ago" Chariot called out.

The man on the helm quickly turned the wheel to the right and caused the ship to turn violently towards the south-west. Crew members up at the stern ducked their heads so the spanker didn't hit them.

As the ship was moving, Croix went and approached me, "George...Washington, is it?"

I nodded in response, "Yes that is my name"

"Ah...good strong name for a good strong man" Croix began to say, "There is no doubt that Mary is proud of you…"

I backed away from Croix in shock, "...How do you know my mother's name?"

Croix chuckled, "Oh...you know, it takes a witch to know another…"

I looked at Croix angrily, "My mother was a holy woman of the church, not a devilish witch like you lot"

"She was a bloody witch and a mighty good one at that" Croix argued, "Mary Ball Washington was a teacher of me and Ursula for a while"

"Cut your tricks, you witch!" I harshly said, "What have you done to my mother!?"

"She's safe!" Croix said, "Well, I'm not sure if she's safe or not, but if she's in trouble I assure you it has nothing to do with us" Croix then approached closer to me and put her hand on my forehead, "You are the son of a witch alright…"

I slapped away Croix's hand and backed away, "Damn you...how in God's name do you know my mother's name?!"

Croix sighed, "Listen, I'm not telling you to accept it, I'm just telling you the truth, the witch blood is in you, my friend, you have full ability to use magic the same way we can…" she said as she circled me.

"Even if such a thing were true, I would never fall to such practices," I said while trying to keep a distance away from Croix.

Croix sighed and held out her hand to me, she didn't say any words but she looked at me expectantly.

I suddenly felt incredibly nervous, the ship was doing a tacking motion that moved many a sailor across the deck, I've seen it a thousand times yet somehow it was nauseating. Surely this must be the witch's doing. "What are you doing?" I swiftly and nervously asked Croix.

"Give me your hand," Croix said as she moved closer to me with a determined look.

I placed my right hand on my chest and covered it with my left while trying to face away from Croix, "Why would I trust such a suspicious request from a witch no less"

"It takes proper training to use magic" Croix began to explain, "But if I connect my magic energy with yours I can show you what you are capable of"

I backed away from Croix even farther, making sure my hand wasn't within reach of her. The ship stopped it's nauseating motion and was now sailing towards the south. I was relieved, though I still felt a little sick. Chariot ran over to me with a hopeful look.

"Was that supposed to impress me?" I said when I turned to Chariot, "I was once a midshipman, tacking is no mystery to me" I explained, my face with a stern look.

Chariot giggled, "I've yet to show you the best part!" Chariot swiftly pulled out a wand from her cloak and called out to the crew of the ship with her wand held up high, "Come out ye Jib-Hats!"

All members of the crew looked at Chariot, but few started to take action. One by one a select number of crew members began to put pointy witch and wizard hats on and pull out wands of their own. They all soon lined up in a group and held their wands up high along with Chariot.

"Move the yards to the starboard side! Fore and Main!" Chariot once again called out.

In an instant, the wands in the hands of the magic folk began to glow bright green, I didn't think it would be possible but sure enough, the yards on the masts began to move, despite there being no men pulling the ropes, the fore and main mast sails began to turn and face the wind. The yards were successfully moved to the starboard side of the ship, and it was all because of the work of about only 13 crew members, and they didn't even break a sweat.

Chariot turned back to me with a happy cheery look, "When you have Jib-Hats aboard you really don't need such large crews to sail a ship" she giggled.

I turned to Chariot still trying to comprehend what I just saw, "...Jib-Hats?" I said with much confusion.

"Nautical term for magic folk," Chariot quickly explained.

There was a long pause until I took notice of Chariot's garment, she was wearing dark blue robes the entire day, it appeared ill suited for sailing.

"About that outfit, you are wearing…" I began to say, but I was cut off.

Chariot giggled and spun a circle with her arms stretched out like a child, "It's pretty isn't it?" she said cheerfully.

"It is very ill-suited for a sailor, especially a captain!" I sternly replied.

Chariot frowned at me, "Oh come on Georgie, it's a cute outfit!" she smiled again.

I shook my head at her with my arms crossed, surely she couldn't be serious, "It'll get torn if you continue to wear it on a ship, judging from the dye colour it must be an expensive coat"

"Work lessens a lot when you're a witch" Chariot responded with a glee look, "Plus, it lets other Jib-Hats out on the ocean know that I am a witch pledge to the practices of European Magic"

That sentence caught my eye, "Other Jib-Hats?" I said with shock.

Chariot nodded intensely, "Yep! There are plenty of Jib-Hatted sailors out there trying to find work, mostly they work for the black market businesses as bigger companies won't hire witches. unfortunately, some witches even turn to piracy"

I put a hand to my chin and started to pace, "Right, and what reason are you sailing-" my words were soon cut off as I was hit with shock as Croix forcefully grabbed my wrist from behind me and placed a wand in it. Chariot also seemed shocked but didn't come to help me.

Croix then pushed my arm to point ahead to the sea, "Murowa!" Croix yelled out, and I quickly felt very numb. Soon it felt as if I was struck by lightning, a large force of energy pushed all the way through me all the way to my hand and into the wand I was holding. A blast of green energy was fired from the wand and launched me out of Croix's grip.

I didn't feel so good, I could hear my heart pounding and my vision began to turn red. I was quickly losing balance, yet even though my faint hearing I could hear the voice of Croix and Chariot.

"Allez au diable, Croix!" The voice of Chariot yelled, "Why did you do that?!"

The figures of Croix and Chariot became harder and harder to see, my vision was getting blurry.

"He needed to learn magic somehow" The calm voice of Croix spoke.

"That is a terrible way to learn Magic!" Chariot whinily said.

"What do you mean?" Croix said, "My parents taught me by using that same method"

The pounding of my heart started to sound even louder, I could almost see the veins in my eyes, every word that was spoken sounded like gibberish and I fell down on the ground yet I barely felt a wooden deck. The only thing I saw next was darkness…

...The next thing I heard was someone singing, the voice was of a man, humming a particular song.

"Step we gaily on we go, heel for heel and toe for toe, arm and arm and on we go, all for Marie's wedding…" The lyrics went.

I opened my eyes slowly, though strangely I didn't feel all that tired. I was lying on a bed staring up at a wooden deck, I was still inside the ship. I turned my head and saw the person who was singing, it was a man wearing a kilt with a brown overcoat and a cap. The man sang in a Scottish accent.

"Are ya awake?" The man asked as he turned to me, "Ye better be"

He had a bold yet raspy voice, the man had a brown beard and blue eyes.

I slowly got up from the bed I was laying in, "May I ask, who are you?" I said to the man.

The man looked at me for a moment, "Edward Donald" He proudly answered.

Edward and I soon heard the sounds of footsteps coming from outside, the door opened and in walked Chariot, Croix and Harald. Croix smiled when she saw that I was awake, "Oh thank Beatrix, I was almost convinced that I killed our general"

Croix and Chariot walked over to me, Harald the Viking gave a smirk at Edward, "Donald, where's your trousers?" Harald jokingly said to Edward.

Edward gave Harald the stink eye, "Say that again and I'll tear away your eyes!" Harald started laughing in response.

Croix turned to Edward, "I know you said you picked up some healing knowledge from the Cavendish house but I never thought you could actually pull it off!"

Edward chuckled, "I may be nothin' but a magicless Scot, but dammit I know how to read a book"

I was confused when I heard mention of the Cavendish house, to my knowledge the Cavendishes were British nobles who had nothing to do with healing. "Cavendish house?" I said in confusion.

"That doesn't matter!" Chariot quickly said, "What matters is that you're safe!"

I frowned at Chariot, "Why is a witch, like you worrying about my well-being?"

Chariot tilted her head with an oblivious face, "...Because you're another human being?"

I looked at her sternly and shook my hand without any words, she must be keeping me alive for something, no witch is this kind.

I got up from the bed and walked out the door, outside I saw the rest of the ship as it was when I passed out, but before it stood land filled with jungle trees and bright golden beaches, in the distance I saw a white flag with a coat of arms represented a shield with a crown on top of it flying beyond the trees. It was the Spanish flag. I thought to myself, surely this must be the Spanish colony of La Florida.

"I thought you were sailing to England," I said as I looked at the flag.

Chariot walked up next to me and pulled out a spyglass from her dark blue cloak and scoped the area, "We were, but we've discovered some new information about the harp" Chariot put away the spyglass and pulled out a small map, marking an X on it, "So we've sailed to New Spain to snatch a key"

Chariot's words shocked me, not so much the snatching of a key but more so the New Spain part, "This...isn't Florida?" I said in confusion.

"You were asleep for a long time…" Croix said to me with a smirk.

I turned to Croix with a strong feeling of rage in my heart, "You bloody witch! I'll kill you!" I yelled out.

I jumped at Croix only for both Edward and Harald to grab my arms and pull me back, "Stand yer ground, lad!" Edward said to me, "It ain't wise to tackle a witch you know"

Eventually, I calmed down and the two sailors let me go.

I took a deep sigh and looked back at the land before us and the flag in the distance.

Croix walked over to me and smiled a nervous smile, "...Look I'm very sorry about what I did! I should've thought about the consequences of making a magical person use magic for the first time far late into their life"

Chariot walked up with a cheerful look on her face as she placed her arm on my shoulder, "All that magic must've been building up for years!"

Their words only made me angrier, but I kept calm and looked forward into the land, "...How do you know this key is here?" I asked.

Chariot started twiddling her thumbs, "Well...you see we're trying to unlock something-"

She was cut off as I spoke, "What are you trying to unlock!?"

"Let me finish!" Chariot said, "We have the harp, and I thought the harp was all we needed until I remembered that you also needed a specific key to unlock a door to the...thing...we are trying to unlock" Chariot stuttered.

Croix shook her head in shame, "You can be so forgetful sometimes…" she crossed her arms.

"I can't help it!" Chariot cried out.

I cleared my throat, "That explanation doesn't say anything about my original question"

Chariot turned to me and clapped her hands, "Oh! Right! We know that Mexica people had the key, how they got it is beyond me, but I knew they had it, so we sailed around Cape Horn, and halfway there we met up with Edward here, who told us that the Spanish had stolen the key from a dead witch"

Edward stepped in front of us and put one foot on a crate. He looked forward at the land in a very stoic pose with one hand over his eyes to block out the sun and the other hand on his knee. He soon spoke, "I tried to inform ye before we sailed away but I came to the dock seeing that you sailed without me, so I ventured to the Mexica people to take the key and bring it to ya" Edward explained.

"Yep, all to be told that those bloody Spaniards took it," Croix said after taking a step forward.

"Come on then!" Chariot cheerfully said as she handed us all a musket, "Let's make way to that settlement!"

I looked at the musket and then back at Chariot, "...You're giving me a gun?" I said,

Chariot looked at me with a face of wonder, "...Well since you're a general I thought it'd be good to give you a weapon while you come along with us"

Truly this witch lacked the necessary wits to survive, I was going to object but this could be my only chance to escape. I kept the gun and strapped it on my back.

"Hey, George!" Croix yelled to me.

I turned around to see an apple flying towards me, I quickly grabbed it before it hit me and looked at Croix

"After months of no food, I imagine Your quite hungry," Croix said with a smile

I had to admit I was starving, I took the apple and made way to the rowboats.

Chariot, Harald, Edward and I all jumped on a rowboat and started rowing towards the land. Chariot looked back at Croix who was on the bow of the ship looking at her, "Go ahead and sail to England!" Chariot called out, "We'll take a Ley line to Luna Nova!"

Croix nodded and turned around to the rest of the crew, however her words faded away as we rowed to shore. We landed on the golden beach and jumped out of the boat. We all had muskets but I was the only one who was holding it. Harald had an axe in his right hand, Edward was holding onto the pommel of a Scottish two-handed sword and Chariot was holding her wand of course.

The four of us made the way through the jungle until we saw a fort surrounded by white-coated men. We all hid behind the trees and watched.

"Who are those people?" Chariot whispered.

"They're Spanish guards" I sharply said.

Chariot giggled, "I just realized! We have a British general on our side! George if you can just walk up to the soldiers and talk politics or whatever…"

"That's not how politics work!" I said with a stern face, "And to be clear I'm not going to be engaging combat with any Spanish soldiers, I already started a war with the French, no need to get the Spanish involved"

Chariot looked at the two guards at the front gate like a hawk, she was clearly thinking something.

"...So does anyone here speak Spanish?" Harald quietly said.

Chariot, with a determined face, jumped out of the woods and ran towards the two guards as fast as she could, the two guards took notice of her immediately and looked at her strangely. When she got up to the guards she stopped herself and held her knees while catching her breath. The two guards looked at each other then back at Chariot. Chariot looked at the two guards with a bright smile on her face, "Uh...Hola!" she paused. Chariot knew Spanish even less than English, "Uh...Cómo estás?" she said nervously.

There was a long silence. The left guard soon spoke, "Bueno Como Estas?" The right guard next to him punched him on the shoulder and turned to me, "¿Quién eres tú?"

Chariot felt even more nervous, she was almost visibly shaking, "Uh...U-Ursula...Ursula Du-Du Nord"

"...What the hell is she doing?" I whispered from behind the tree.

"Chariot isn't the best at making plans…" Harald said as he shook his head with a hand on his face.

"¿Por qué estás aquí?" the right guard asked.

"¿Estás aquí para pasar un buen rato?" the left guard snickered.

Shortly after he was hit in the stomach by his friend, "Cabrón!" the right guard yelled. They both turned to me, "¿Estás Perdido?" The right guard said.

Edward soon jumped out of the woods himself and cried out a loud battle cry, he pulled the musket from his back and fired a shot next to the guards.

The guards, in shock, yelled out, "¡Ayuda! ¡Ayuda!" The left guard yelled.

"¡Mátalo!" The right guard called out.

Soon a large force of Spanish soldiers marched out of the fort gates and started running towards Edward, some of the soldiers had pikes in their hands while others had muskets.

Edward nervously threw his musket and swung it around to his back and ran away. He patted me and Harald as he ran passed, "Run ye buggers!" he cried out.

Both me and Harald looked at the Scot as he ran away, we looked back to see the large army of Spanish pike and shots running at us ready to kill. Harald patted me on the shoulder, "Have fun with your politics, friend" He said before running away as well.

I turned back and ran after the two, "Wait for me, you idiots!" I yelled out.

Chariot stepped out of harm's way, but the two Spanish guards were still there, looking at her, "Donde estábamos Nosotros" The left one said to her. Chariot sighed and pointed her wand at both of the guards, "Murowa!" She yelled, shooting out a large energy ball and causing the two guards to go unconscious. Chariot then walked through the open gate into the fort.

Meanwhile me, Harald and Edward were still running away from the Spanish.

"Why the bloody hell did you do that!?" I yelled at Edward as we were running.

"Sure I was really…" Edward took breathers in between words, "Really hoping that the guards would run after us instead of calling for their men"

Harald laughed, "Well life isn't like one of your books, frien-" He was cut off by his own yelp as he tripped and fell in a ditch that was in front of us. Edward also fell in the ditch, I stopped right before falling in.

I looked down and saw both Edward and Harald getting up and dusting off their backs as they looked around, "George! Get yer waist down here!" Edward called to me from below

"...I think I might stay up here, thank you" I said sarcastically.

"Look behind ye, lad! There's a real right cave 'ere that might be our way of losing those buggers!" Edward explained.

I looked behind me and saw the Spanish soldiers far away but still heading for me. Hesitantly I jumped in the ditch and faced the small cave in front of me. Harald grabbed a lantern from under his coat and lit it, he made a hand jester to us and Edward to follow him.

I got up from my back and dusted myself off as well and followed Harald into the cave

"Dark in here, ain't it?" Edward said as he looked around.

"No kidding, Donald" Harald said.

"Ye never know in a dark place like this if in e're a creature were to come out and kill ya," Edward said as he turned to me with a sinister smile.

I looked at him sternly, "I'm not some school boy that is easily frightened by stories"

Edward laughed, "Ah sure Jaysus lighten up just a wee bit!"

"I'm a prisoner on a witches ship! Why would I lighten up?" I harshly said.

"Because witches aren't as terrible as everyone says!" Harald quickly responded.

"Please…" I began to say, "Those devils have been terrorizing us for ages, using their black magic for their own personal gain by listening to the sound of human suffering"

"Really? Now, who told ya that then?" Edward began to say, "Was it the Bible? Or maybe the priest?"

"You defy the words of God…" I said ominously.

"And you defy the words of the Nine Ould Witches!" Edward snapped back. "Witches are humans! Some good, some bad. Those bad witches have dammed all magic folk to live in secrecy for their entire life! Many a witch or wizard have watched in horror as family members or friends were burned alive in front of them by bucket head Crusaders and their bloody crosses"

"That was ages ago…" I said after a long pause.

Edward sighed, "And yet, Magic folk to this day are still being forcefully drowned or hanged by the neck until dead" He stopped in his tracks and looked back at me, "Perhaps you might want to know how magic folk see the world around them" He then kept walking and following the light. I stood silent, I decided not to say anything and keep walking.

We soon saw a large light ahead of us, not of the lantern but of daylight, after climbing a large pile of rocks we climbed out of a hole onto the surface. As I climbed out I noticed the Spanish fort we saw earlier, it was before us and also below us, it appeared that we had climbed onto the surface of a cliff.

Harald lightly punched my shoulder, "Come on now! That wall there won't be hard to climb over at all"

I sighed, "I'm going to regret this"

The three of us climbed down the cliff and carefully walked over to the fort from the side, there were no guards protecting the area we were headed for, but we did hear some yelling happening inside of the fort.

We all climbed over the stone gate and quickly saw Chariot inside, hiding behind a house. She was holding a flintlock pistol in her hand, carefully she raised the gun and fired it into the sky. The soldiers at the fort quickly took notice, and a few of them ran towards the noise, however, Chariot dropped the gun and ran away before anyone could see her. She hid behind a cart that was standing before what looked like a warehouse. The warehouse had two guards protecting it with muskets in their hands.

Chariot took a deep breath and fired another heat blast from her wand at the two guards, knocking them out cold. Chariot quickly ran into the warehouse and rummaged through all the things, she looked in the main chest but all it had was some charts. She looked everywhere but couldn't find anything of use. She walked out of the warehouse oblivious until she noticed that she was surrounded by Spanish guards pointing their guns at her.

"¡Estarse quieto!" one of the guards yelled, "¡No te muevas!"

Chariot raised her hands up in defeat, but soon after a gunshot was heard, and one of the guards fell dead. All the guards looked at the dead soldier, and it wasn't till another gunshot was heard that killed off another soldier. The guards looked around, one of them quickly ran towards Chariot ready to stab her with a bayonet, but he felt a sharp pain in his back and fell down on the ground dead with an axe thrown in his back.

Harald ran down and grabbed the axe from the back of the soldier, however, that wasn't the last of them. Chariot and Harald took a short glance at all the soldiers staring at them, some with their guns pointed and ready to fire.

Chariot and Harald ran out of the fort as quickly as possible, grabbing both me and Edward along, we ran as fast as we could until we made it to the sandy golden beaches we saw before. Breathing heavily we were all relieved that we managed to lose them.

"Did ye find the key?" Edward asked.

"There was no key…" Chariot answered as she wiped her forehead of sweat.

"Impossible, this is the exact place the Mexica told me the key was located, they were planning a siege of the place for months now" Edward explained.

"Maybe we should ask The Mexica about it…" Chariot suggested.

Chariot led us onto a small rowboat on a river in a cold damp swamp, as we rowed down the river, Chariot handed me a pointy wizard hat, "You may want to put this on"

"Why?" I simply said.

"Because you might end up like one of them," Harald said as he nodded his head in a certain direction.

I turned and jumped back in shock and fear. Before me hanged a Spanish soldier, he was hanging by the neck on a tree branch, long dead.

"Where...where are we?" I asked nervously.

"In a place that is very protective of its temple" Chariot said as she placed the hat on my head over my tricorn. Edward and Harald also had wizard hats on, and Chariot was wearing a white cape and a bright white witch hat

As we rowed down the river I started to see more Spanish soldiers hanging from the branches of trees, I could almost see bodies below the murky waters. I wondered where we were going but I dared not ask.

It wasn't long till we stood before a large temple, the four of us jumped out of the rowboat and started walking up the stairs. The stairway led to an open doorway with giant carvings of faces next to it. The stairway was steep and seemed to have writing on each step, what was odder was that each step had different symbols almost as if the entire staircase was a written story. As we were walking up we were passed by many fair-skinned Indians, some looked to be teenagers, just a bit younger than I was, and some much older, looking to be in their late 30s or early 40s.

"Forgive me for not knowing...who are the Mexica people?" I asked.

"You probably know them as the Aztecs…" Harald said as he looked around the area with a smirk.

I was baffled, "Aztecs!? I thought they went extinct 200 years ago"

Edward laughed, "The Spanish may have killed the lot of 'em, but ye can't kill off the entirety of a culture that easily"

"This place serves as a final safe haven for the Mexica people" Chariot began to explain, "It is the only ley line to be both a magic school and a home for the last remnants of a culture"

"Magic school? You certainly failed to mention that…" I said sternly.

After what felt like hours we finally made it to the top of the stairway. Before us stood a doorway and inside the temple was a large open room with slopes leading down to different other doorways. There was little light and while there were a few torches placed, most of the people in the temple held candles in their hands to see well. Harald was holding his lantern once again to lead us the way. While most of the people were Mexica and wore black dresses with long hair like bands hanging from certain headdresses or sleeves, some of the people in the crowd were light-skinned and wore traditional Magic hats and dark blue robes, similar to the ones Chariot was wearing.

Frankly, I was annoyed with my wizard hat. I assumed it was safe enough to take it off and straighten out my tricorn hat, though I did get some strange glances from folks after doing so. I still didn't want to put it on so I held the hat up to my chest just to pretend that I was one of the magic folk just like everyone else, and also to make a good first impression...

As we were walking I soon noticed something even more strange, in the corner I saw two young ladies talking to each other, they weren't wearing blue European robes or Aztec dresses, they were both wearing a white dress with golden outlines, though it could've easily been mistaken as a towel wrapped around them. The two ladies had shortly cut black hair and fools gold makeup on their face, and to add to it all, they both had bright shining necklaces, rings and a colourful choker. They weren't Aztecs, they looked like Egyptians, not modern Egyptians but like the ancient Egyptians thousands of years before now, although probably much cleaner and shiner.

"Who are these people?" I quietly asked Chariot.

"Sometimes magic folks from around the world will visit other Ley lines" Chariot softly responded, "The Blue cloaked pointy hat lassies are from the remains of Luna Nova, like me," Chariot looked around and took notice of the two Egyptians talking to each other, "Oh! And those two are from Clara Sole, all here to visit the Temple of Malinalxochitl"

Clara Sole and Luna Nova were simple Latin names, but I needed a minute to even comprehend the name Malinalxochitl.

Chariot giggled at my confused face, "You can call it The Temple of Serpents if you wish…"

I looked at Chariot and sighed, not saying a word.

After walking up one final slope we saw in front us a few men and women dressed in the same similar style as all the Mexica people, but with capes and robes instead of dresses, they were the caretakers presumably. They were all speaking to each other in a strange language that I've never heard before, it all sounded like gibberish to me…

Chariot cleared her throat to grab the attention of the men and women.

The Headmaster in the middle sighed before turning around, and much to my surprise spoke English, "I'm very sorry but tours have ended for Luna Nova Students…"

I was baffled, the man spoke fluently in English, there was no hint of an accent. He had a weary voice however, he was clearly very old.

The Headmaster turned around to face us, his eye line and forehead were painted black with charcoal and he wore a large headdress with bright colourful feathers. He smiled, "Ah...Chariot Du Nord…" He turned to look at Harald and Edward and softly chuckled, "And of course the Viking and the scot…" but when the man turned to me he frowned, "...Who is this, now?" he asked.

"George Washington!" Chariot quickly responded, "A wizard from…" Chariot paused and took a look at me, "Kanata!"

The man started to look suspicious, "Kanata? I thought the ley line was owned by the Nehiyawak people"

"Since Luna Nova doesn't accept male students the chief of the Cree took it upon himself to allow male European magic folk to come and learn magic in their school," Chariot explained.

Whether this was true or not was beyond me, as long as it kept me alive, the boat ride here told me that these people aren't particularly fond of military men. Though the name Cree took my mind, were they talking about the Cree Indians up in New France?

The Headmaster started to pace, "I have yet to see many students from Kanata…" The man stopped and turned to me with a smile, "Please, Mister Washington, could you tell me what type of magic they teach there?"

"We don't have time!" Edward quickly said, "The key appears to have been lost…"

The Headmaster looked at Edward for a moment, "Key? What…" The paused and looked down, "Oh! That key!" The Headmaster laughed, "Come! Follow me for a bit"

The Headmaster led us through a dark hallway, even with the help of the lantern and the one or two torches that would appear every once in a while it was hard to see anything, I was afraid I was going to trip on something. Something that was strange is that the Headmaster who was leading us didn't seem to be bothered by the darkness at all, he moved through the hallways and took turns like he could see them from miles away.

After walking through what seemed to be an endless maze we all walked into a room with a large pool in the middle, the area had banners hung up from the roof, and inside the pool was a pile of gold.

"This is the treasure room I presume?" I said out loud.

"Treasure room?" The Headmaster said to me as he looked into the pool, "Unlike the greedy Spanish we don't value gold as a form of currency"

Given that a lot of the students wore gold on their person like it was nothing already sort of told me that gold had more of a stylistic value here.

The Headmaster held out his hand above the pool and closed his eyes, he wasn't physically doing anything but he looked like he was concentrating on something…

Suddenly out of nowhere, the Headmaster's hand began to glow purple, and the something in the pool followed suit. The glowing object in the pool started to rise and soon shot up out of the surface of the water and got caught right in the hands of the headmaster.

Even Chariot seemed to be impressed by the magic trick, "How do you do that?!" She said in a childlike tone.

The headmaster gave her a smirk, "Someday, you European magic folk will learn that your own body is all you need to use magic, no need for silly wands" The Headmaster then presented what he grabbed, in his hand was a rusty key, though even with the rust you could see designs of vines and leaves on the key.

"You...had it the entire time?" Edward softly said.

"I told you before, Edward, We were planning an attack on the Spanish fort to get the key months before you arrived," The Headmaster said, "When we finally got it we didn't know where you were or how to contact you"

Harald seemed awfully amused by this, though I, Chariot and Edward shared the same sense of annoyance as we risked our lives to try and get that key.

The Headmaster sighed, "Well I suppose it's time to return the key back to it's rightful Luna Nova owners, it was an honour to keep it safe for all these years" He then dropped the key into Chariot's hands.

There was a long pause "So...are the Ley Lines open?" Chariot asked.

"Yes! Come follow me" The Headmaster said in response before walking off again.

Through another maze of hallways we walked, this time the Headmaster was speaking to us.

"The Ley Line to Luna Nova is unfortunately closed," The Headmaster began to explain, "With the all the visitors coming here the magical energy is far too dangerous to travel through"

"We must get to Luna Nova somehow!" Chariot whined.

"Calm down!" The Headmaster said, "If you travel to Kanata you should have a safe straight ride to Luna Nova"

After that we entered another large room with a rock statue at the end of the room, it looked like a portal with strange faces carved into it, and above it hung a large banner with a simple illustration of a man wearing a similar headdress to the on the current Headmaster was wearing, and he was holding an illustration of the sun with a face in his hands.

"Who is that?" I asked while staring at the banner.

"King Montezuma," The Headmaster said, "The founder of this school"

Even more, questions flooded my mind after hearing that, I knew a little about Montezuma of the Aztec empire but had no idea of him being a wizard.

With the flick of the Headmaster's wrist, the stone carving of a portal suddenly started glowing bright green, and a real portal appeared before us.

The Headmaster grabbed and large staff off the wall and threw it to Chariot, "That should hold up to three people," He then turned to me, "And that musket on your back should suffice"

I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Go ahead and jump in!" Harald said to me.

I turned to him and gave him a stern look, "I'm not going in that thing! What, are you mad?!"

"Ah sure you'll be fine," Edward said right before shoving me into the portal himself.

I was instantly terrified, I felt like I was falling even though I was being propelled forward, I tried as hard as I could to keep my hat on during the fall. I was screaming and trying to look around for something to grab onto, but instead, I saw something else.

After calming down a bit I saw in front of me a large number of images and visions. One of the images was of a flag, but no flag that I could recognize, it had 13 red and white stripes with a blue corner that had 13 stars in a circle. Another picture was of two army forces firing at each other, one side I could recognize as the British, but the other wore blue coats that was unfamiliar to me, it looked like it could be French soldiers but the flag bearer was holding the same strange flag I saw before. Along with all that I saw hundreds of images of people I didn't recognize.

I heard whispers, whispers saying strange things like, "President Washington, I have not yet begun to fight, give me liberty or give me death, no taxation without representation" and the like.

I suddenly felt something grab my arm, I looked up to see Edward, Harald and Chariot all riding the same staff that was given to them, with Chariot being the one who grabbed my arm. I looked back to see that all the images and whispers had disappeared.

"Could you pull me up!?" I shouted.

"Sorry! Only three can fit!" Chariot explained.

"This can't be safe at all!" I responded.

Chariot smiled, "Don't worry! I've done this many-" she was cut off as she lost balance and tipped over the staff causing everyone to fall off of it and fly through the maze-like tunnels while screaming.

What am I to do now…?

* * *

Historical Info.

**New Spain and New France.**

Don't recognize the name? Well, that's because they are now known as Mexico and Canada. Spain was the first European nation to colonize the Americas and invited everyone else to follow suit. In 1521 the lands of Modern Mexico, Central America and little bits of the US were officially known as New Spain, the name Mexico comes from the Mexica (Pronounced Meshika) People who lived in the land for ages and had empires of their own. New France, while owning almost the entire east of Canada also owned land in the US down to the modern state of Louisiana. The area was known as the Louisiana colony named after the King of France at the time. places like New Orleans, Quebec, and Hudson bay came from the French, as France owned all of those places at one point, it was until President Thomas Jefferson established the Louisiana purchase that France began to lose it's North American Colonies.

**Ley Lines**

Ley Lines are not just some cool sounding magical thing from Little Witch Academia, They are the real energy forces that circle the entire earth. A noticeable thing about Ley Lines is that a lot of places where Ley Lines meet is where a lot of famous historical monuments can be found, Pyramids of Giza, Uluru, Glastonbury Abby and many more. It appears to me that the rule of where are Magic Schools in Little Witch Academia is where Ley Lines meet, so this is far from the last chapter in this story where you will see a magic school other than Luna Nova, I've had ideas of bringing characters to new magic schools since chapter one, and I cannot wait to show off the different cultures of these places.


	16. Chapter 16, 1775, July 4th

The sun was rising over the city of Philadelphia, it was very early and few people were out on the streets. Diana and Ursula were riding on a broom over the now-quiet town, it was a perfect time to arrive as nobody was out to look up in the sky and cry witch. Diana was tired but not willing to fall asleep just yet, she was determined to talk with the continental congress.

Ursula and Diana both landed in an alleyway so nobody could see. Diana took a deep breath of air when she jumped off the broom and viewed the city with her own eyes for the first time.

"My vacation here has been extended for almost five years, how have I never been here?" Diana quietly said to herself. She took a step forward accidentally tripping on a rock, she didn't fall but out of her vest flew a flintlock pistol.

Ursula looked down at the gun without shock or any sense of mind, "Is that yours?" she casually said.

Diana quickly grabbed the gun and started wiping it with a handkerchief, "Well not technically, but I imagine it will be staying with me for a while"

Ursula placed the broom to lean on a brick wall and walked up to Diana, "Whatever does that mean?"

Diana hid the gun in her vest, "While trying to get here I joined alongside a couple of merchants, one of the more hostile ones had this gun with her at all times" Diana explained, "While she wasn't looking I stole it from her, just to see to it that I and the people around were safe"

Ursula was sceptical but didn't want to question Diana, so she smiled and walked fully out of the alleyway into the street, Diana followed her. It was still early but the number of people out was increasing, more and more carriages passed by with people walking beside them, the chatting of people was soon heard throughout the city.

"Come!" Ursula cheerfully said, "Follow me! I know just where the congress is being held"

A long silence between the two fell, as they simply walked forwards in the middle of the street to Carpenters hall.

"Miss Cavendish…" Ursula began to say, "You want to speak to the congressmen, correct?"

Diana nodded, "Of course, I suspect that they are the most sensible men in these colonies, yet even their ideas are absolutely absurd!"

"Pardon me…" A different voice called out from the crowd, Diana quickly turned around to see a tall man with a dark blue overcoat and yellow undercoat, "Are you by chance, Diana Cavendish?" the man asked. He looked very noble and mature, however upon seeing Diana a small hint of childlike curiosity could be seen in his eyes.

The man walked up to Diana with a welcoming smile, she paused but soon spoke, "Yes, tis I, and who might you be?" she asked.

"Thomas Jefferson," The man said, he then turned to The blue-haired librarian next to Diana, "And who might you be?"

"Ursula Calistus," The librarian said as she handed out her hand, "I've heard a few things about you, one of the statesmen of Virginia, correct?"

Jefferson was stunned after hearing her speak, "Ursula...Calistus?"

Ursula nodded.

Jefferson snapped out of it and smiled…"Calistus...a beautiful name" Jefferson shook her hand. "May I ask, what is a British noble such as yourself doing in Philadelphia?" He said, turning his attention to Diana.

"I wish to speak to the members of the continental congress" Diana bluntly explained. "Clearly there must be a way to change their minds"

Jefferson took a step back and lifted his chin, "...You are loyal to the king?"

"Of course!" Diana quickly said, "Can't you see how absurd this all is?"

Jefferson looked down and sighed, mumbling something under his breath.

"Jefferson sir?" Diana loudly spoke.

Thomas cleared his throat, "Yes, yes, very sorry about that. If you wish to speak to the congress I can show you the way"

Despite Ursula already knowing the way, Diana quickly nodded without a word. As the three walked through the streets Diana noticed that many of the people were taking notice of her and whispering things to each other, perhaps she should've brought a hood.

The three finally reached carpenters hall, the meeting hadn't yet started and you could see a few men still entering the building. Thomas stepped to the side and allowed Diana to pass and walk into the building.

"I must warn you, the congressmen aren't too keen on letting a woman interrupt the meeting," Thomas said to Diana as she walked towards the door.

Diana paused in her steps, and without turning around, spoke, "I'm sure they'll make an exception" she said before walking forward once more.

For a long moment, both Ursula and Thomas stood next to each other staring at Diana as she entered the building until Ursula turned and spoke, "Are you not going in?"

Thomas looked around for a moment to see if anyone was within earshot of the two, "Ursula, are you by chance related to a Chariot Calistus?"

Ursula was shocked but tried hard not to show it, "Chariot Calistus?"

Thomas nodded his head, "Yes, yes! The legendary sailor from France, even before I learned your name, something about you reminded me of Chariot"

Ursula didn't know what to say, The character of Chariot was seen in good lights in the eyes of the Americans, so it wouldn't do her much harm to reveal the truth at this point, on the other hand, if news did spread about Chariot being alive and well the British Parliament would have quite a few things to say about it, not to mention that Ursula and her younger self have very different hair colours that the folks with keen eyes would point out and call her out for being a witch.

"I'm very sorry, but to my knowledge, I have no relation to the famous sailor"

Thomas froze, "...Ah...That's alright" He looked down, "But if I may...are you by chance from...Luna Nova?"

Ursula froze as well, filled with fear and dread. She struggled to look Thomas in the eye, "Luna Nova?" she stuttered.

"Indeed, The LeyLine crosses above the Glastonbury Abbey" Thomas explained.

Ursula was visibly shaking, not knowing what to do. She thought for sure this was when she would die, or at the very least when she would flee the colonies and never return.

Thomas smiled, "Calm down Miss! I'm on the side of witches"

Ursula stopped shaking and slowly looked up at the young and kind Thomas Jefferson and his curious yet warming smile, "My wife's ancestors were witches, and while she had a little bit of the magic blood within her, my daughter was our only child who had the ability to learn magic herself" Thomas reached into his suit and brought out a letter, he handed it to Ursula, "If there's any chance, I would love to see a day that she becomes a student in the magical school of Luna Nova"

Ursula was still puzzled, she looked at the letter for a moment, "This...this is a lot to take in" were the only words she could say.

Thomas smiled, "I know, I imagine you aren't used to being supported by the non-magic folk, in fact, I believe that I am the only one in Congress who supports the freedom of witches and slaves, but believe me when I say that one day all the words people will stand together free, regardless of race or religious belief" Thomas shook Ursula's hand and ran into the building without a word.

Ursula was still very confused, she decided to put the letter in her vest to keep it safe, the meeting was about to start, and so Ursula waited patiently for the end of the congress to see how well Diana convinced the delegates to end this war.

…

"Akko?" A faint voice rang in my head, "Wake up! It's morning"

Lotte and Constanze both woke up and saw my body lying on the grass in the woods.

"Sucy!" Lotte cried out, "Come quickly!"

The mushroom lover crawled out of the carriage and walked over to the two with an outfit different from what they were used to. She was wearing the same clothing style as she wore back in the Iroquois village, however this time it appeared to be all one long dress, it covered her arms and made it look like she was floating when she was walking.

"Is she dead?" Sucy casually asked.

"No no, she's breathing…" Lotte replied with a sigh of relief, "However she's not waking up, can you get your gun?"

Sucy sighed and looked down at the ground, "I lost the gun…"

Lotte tried hard not to giggle after hearing that, "You...almost sound disappointed about that" she said with a humorous smile, "It's only a weapon you know…"

Instead of answering Sucy began to rummage in some sort of invisible pocket behind her back, out of it she pulled out an axe, and not just any axe, it was Lotte's axe. "If this is just a weapon perhaps I should just throw it into the river, miss pacifist," Sucy said referring to Lotte.

Lotte gasped and swiftly snatched the axe out of Sucy's hands and pulled it close to her chest, "PLEASE NO!" Lotte yelled.

Sucy bursted out laughing. Lotte soon realized she was joking and loosed the grip she had on her axe with an angry look at Sucy, however after a while of Sucy laughing, Lotte slanted her pose and looked down at the ground with shame and a sigh.

As this was happening Constanze looked at me sleeping, she was thinking something though she couldn't speak about, and it seemed like Lotte and Sucy were busy anyway… Constanze sneaked off to do something about the sleeping Akko.

"So what's the story behind the axe?" Sucy asked after laughing.

Lotte looked back up, surprised that Sucy would ask that question, "Um...well it was a gift" She said, twiddling her thumbs.

"From who?" Sucy asked with a smirk.

Lotte sighed, "My family is very...Nordic"

"I know that you're from Finland, Lotte…" Sucy cut her off.

"No! Not like that!" Lotte yelled, "You see...I'm sort of descended from Vikings"

"I know," Sucy simply replied.

Lotte jumped, "What?! Ho- When did I-"

"You didn't" Sucy laughed, "It was obvious!"

They both paused until Lotte sighed again before speaking, "Anyway...on my dad's side was a family that was desperate in keeping those old traditions alive…"

"Like murdering people and raiding villages?"

Lotte was about fed up with Sucy, "Traditions! As in the ancient stories of Norse Mythology, it was my uncle who taught me how to sail a longship and how to use an axe" Lotte then held up the axe and with a skilful hand twirled it around and elegantly placed it on the side of her waist attached to her strap. "This axe was a gift from my father, I'm told that it was once used by a Viking king years before, although I am heavily sceptical…"

Sucy smiled, "So that's why you know so much about Nordic history"

Lotte smiled as well, "So why do you have a flintlock with you at all times?"

"I found it washed up on the beach as a kid, and since then it has been the most persistent item in my life" Sucy explained.

The two looked at each other for a while, both expecting the other to talk.

"...That's it?" Lotte said with her head tilted.

Sucy nodded, "We always saw the white men using flintlocks but this black coloured one with gold exterior seemed...special." Sucy closed her eyes with a warm smile on her face, she looked like she was reliving happy memories, "It's the only thing in my life that wasn't taken away from me by Europeans…" Her smile faded and her eyes opened with a sad look, "Until now that is…"

After a long silence, Lotte rummaged through her vest and brought out a simple Sharpe flintlock pistol and handed it over to Sucy, "Why don't you do the honours?"

Sucy smiled, grabbed the gun and with her other hand brought out a musket shot, she gently blew on it and dropped it into the flintlock. After loading it Sucy rose her arm and pointed the gun up in the air as Lotte covered her ears.

The loud bang was heard for miles, Sucy and Lotte watched as birds flew away from trees and critters scurried away from burrows, yet it didn't wake me up. The two looked at me heavily confused.

"That always works!" Lotte said, baffled.

"Maybe she ate a mushroom that made her fall into an infinite sleep," Sucy said as she handed the pistol back to Lotte.

Out of nowhere Constanze came running back and in her hands was a clamp holding on to a hot ball of metal, it was glowing a bright orange and visible smoke was eliminated from it.

Constanze pushed the hot to my skin and...

"OWWW!" I screamed as I jumped up from the ground, "What was that for?!" A burn mark was imprinted onto my arm. I watched as Sucy started chuckling under her breath.

Lotte smiled at me, "Come on, sleepyhead!" She said as she pulled me up from the ground, "We are to make are back to Boston to retake the Luna Nova"

I had to get my bearings of the world before I could reply, "The Luna Nova? But the British took her!"

"I trust my father's word!" Lotte said cheerfully.

"You mean your godfather…" Sucy interrupted.

Lotte scratched her head, "What's the difference?"

"There's quite a large difference, actually…" Sucy said in her monotone voice.

The four of us began to walk back to the carriage as Sucy and Lotte were bickering, and soon we were off on our way again towards Boston…

For once I actually stayed up the entire trip, I suppose I did get plenty of sleep. The wheels of the carriage started to roll on stone brick road instead of dirt, and I could hear all the people within the city. I peeked out of the carriage to see Boston, however, it wasn't the same, buildings were in ruin and fewer people were out, something happened here.

Lotte parked the carriage in an alleyway, and the rest of us jumped out the back. The four of us all walked out into the city streets and looked at the ruined buildings, the town wasn't completely destroyed in any sense and was still working quite well, but something clearly happened.

"What the heck happened here?" I asked.

"Boston's been under siege for a while," Said Lotte, "Do you think the colonists finally captured it?"

As Lotte was talking I saw a friendly face, my eyes sparkled with joy, it was Jasminka! She appeared to be walking the streets with a single crate in her arms.

I cried out her name cheerfully and ran up to her with a bright smile, the others baffled at what I was doing, only to then realize who I was running to.

Jasminka smiled as brightly as ever when she saw me, "Jasminka! Jasminka!" I yelled, "I haven't seen you in ages!" The others caught up with me, also surprised to see Jasminka.

"Oh, hello!" Jasminka cheerfully said, "I've missed you" Jasminka lowered the crate onto the sidewalk and greeted us properly, "You've missed out on quite the battle…" she said with a frown, Jasminka turned her head toward an even more destroyed part of the town.

"What happened?" Lotte said with a shaky voice.

"A battle at Bunker Hill," Jasminka said, "...Well it was more at Breed's Hill but Bunker Hill was the target, some fighting happened near here as well"

Lotte spoke once more "No gun can do that amount of damage, that must have been the work of artillery"

"So why are you out here?" Sucy asked Jasminka. "I thought you settled in Philadelphia"

Jasminka sighed, "I did for a short while, but after hearing that Boston was put under siege I thought maybe when I arrived the colonists would welcome me after the siege was over"

As Jasminka said, we all watched as a British corp walked by, with a drummer and a flag bearer, telling us that the British still controlled Boston, not to mention the Union Jack still flying above the town.

"...As you can see, I could really do that, so I decided to buy a home and wait here" Jasminka explained.

Lotte sighed, "If the British are still here, then that means the Luna Nova is still captured"

"Maybe we should stay here then" Sucy suggested.

"Huh?" Lotte perked up.

"The siege is still going on, we just have to wait like Jasminka" Sucy smiled.

Hearing the conversation behind me I turned to Jasminka, "Can we stay at your place for the rest of this siege?"

Jasminka looked surprised, but then smiled, "Of course! My home is only across the street" She picked up the crate and started walking, "Follow me!"

Far away in Philadelphia, the day was getting dim, Ursula was waiting outside Carpenters Hall expecting to see Diana walk out at any moment, she had no idea what was going on inside.

"Are we in agreement, Gentlemen?"

"Aye!" the people shouted.

"It is to this day that we sign the Olive Branch Petition, all in hopes to restore our previous relations with Great Britain, and live once again as one of her loyal colonies to prevent further conflict" The man who spoke opened his way to Diana, opening a path to the petition. "And in honour of the Cavendish family, we will let the lady sign first"

Diana was nervous, she was afraid to be labelled as a traitor if she were to prove to have interacted with the Continental Congress, but as she thought about it more, she hoped and prayed that her sign would only convince the king more to accept the deal. With much hesitation she finally signed the petition, her name all in cursive, she stepped aside to let others sign it, but even so, she was afraid of what the king would think of it.

Diana walked outside the hall, Ursula looked happy to see her. "Did things go well?" Ursula asked.

"We have sent the king a chance of peace, it is our only hope" Diana explained, "It will take many months to hear a response, for now, we can only pray…"


	17. Chapter 17, The Siege of Boston

Winter is here.

Well, it was here for a while now…

I will never get used to the American winters, just here in Boston, the cold even inside is unbearable. The months flew by quickly, it was very nice of Jasminka to let us stay in her home until the siege ended, even if her house was small and wooded.

I woke up just as the sun was shining through the window, surprisingly, I was the first one awake out of Sucy and Lotte, as those two were still sleeping in their rooms, Although Jasminka and Constance were awake, Constance was fidgeting with something on a table near the door, while Jasminka, as always, was cooking.

"Good Morning, Akko!" The pink-haired lass said to me in her lovely voice, "I know you must be tired, but could you fetch me some stored grain from the market?" she asked.

I haven't even properly dressed yet, but I shook myself up a bit and happily accepted her request.

I put on a brown dress that I bought earlier this year, the sailor outfit was fun and all but I found this outfit more pretty and nice to walk in, though I still put on the Tricorne, just for fun.

I walked outside in the cold winter air of Boston, the siege still hasn't ended, and the redcoats proudly walked the streets, I didn't mind too much, though sometimes a band of them would bust into our house and force us to let them stay for a while.

As I was walking down the street I noticed something, it was a few redcoats kicking and messing with a plain-looking man, the redcoats were singing, "Yankee doodle keep it up! Yankee doodle dandy, Mind the music and the step and with the girls be handy!" they sang.

What a humiliating song, I thought to myself, that man that they are harassing must have revealed some revolutionary ideals.

The man eventually managed to escape, and the redcoats laughed as he ran away.

I had a sense of justice then, so I started running over there to have a word with the redcoats myself, but before I could, another very handsome redcoat stepped up, "Would you three stop messing around?" he said to the others.

The other redcoats laughed, "Come on, mate, can't we have a little fun?"

"You do realize we have a job to do, right?" The handsome redcoat replied.

"What job? The job of keeping those bloody Yankees out of Boston?" another redcoat mockingly said, "that old prick, Washington is never getting passed the walls!"

The handsome redcoat sighed, "You must never underestimate your enemies, gentlemen"

Before anyone else could speak, I ran over and chimed in "Why did you do that to that poor innocent man in the first place anyway!?" I yelled.

One of the redcoats chuckled, "And who might you be, little lady?"

I started to get angry, luckily the fair redcoat calmed things down, "She's not worth your time, come, let us get back to the group"

The other redcoats groaned, "Alright, fine" one of them said before walking away. The fairest redcoat was about to follow the rest but then turned to me.

"And you stay out of trouble," He said.

"And who might you be?" I asked.

The redcoat looked ready to leave but also willing to answer anything I asked, "I'm...I'm Andrew Hanbridge, aright savvy?"

He handed out his hand for me to shake, I was nervous but I saw no harm in introducing myself, "You can call me Akko!"

"A pleasure, now if you'll excuse me, I have a few things to do," Andrew said, he then tipped his hat to me, "Stay safe, Akko"

He then walked away towards the direction the other redcoats went, I soon realized how distracted I got, and quickly went back to buying grain from the market for Jasminka, but not without hearing gunshots in the far distance.

It's a new year, and the new year comes a new flag for the colonists, a red and white stripe pattern with the union jack on the top left. Croix left her tent to see what she expected from the sound, soldiers doing drills with George leading them. After waking up a bit, Croix walked over to the general, placing her hand on his shoulder, "You know, Flying a British flag while doing training drills preparing to fight the British may send mixed messages" she said.

George sighed, "We have no choice, we wish to restore our relationships with our British brethren, however, we must fight to gain the liberty in which Britain refuses to give to us"

Croix crossed her arms and shook her head," You know, it might not have been a good idea to prohibit slaves from joining the army, the British is promising freedom to slaves who fight for their side"

Croix believed it a good idea to start doing something similar to the British, but Washington didn't agree, "My friend, we need not the help of slaves to win this war, they won't be much help anyway" he said.

Croix didn't agree but she didn't feel compelled to argue about it, though whether the case she felt like it was time to leave this all behind, "While it has been interesting helping you keep this army in place, it is here where I leave you, old friend" she said in a low tone.

George looked down for a moment, he seemed disappointed though it was noticeable on how he was expecting this to happen soon anyway. George spoke, "Right...bless it be onto you, and keep safe"

Croix simply nodded and walked away, with many thoughts about the state of the British and the Colonists, and where she stood in all of it, she was curious of how she might see Washington in the future.

Croix's thoughts drifted away as she sensed a familiar presence, after a bit of quiet she called out in a soft voice, "Chariot?"

…

Walking in front of a tree was Ursula, looking concerned, she walked up to Croix with a little smile.

"Where were you?" Croix asked, "I haven't seen you in months!"

Ursula fiddled with her thumbs before talking, "Sorry about that…"

Croix put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, "I suppose you didn't find Diana, huh?"

Ursula shook her head, "though I did go to the Continental Congress, the delegates are sending an Olive Branch Petition to the King, and end this war."

"Hmm…" Croix had her hand on her chin, "You know, I've heard rumors of the Cavendish being at that said meeting you speak of…"

Ursula quickly felt nervous, and didn't do well to hide it, "Uh...um...well I didn't see her there if that's what you were going to ask me."

Croix looked right into Ursula's eyes,"...Right."

Neither of them spoke for a good while, though Ursula had thoughts in her mind about what Jefferson said after the meeting when he walked out of the house, Thomas gave her some insight about the Cavendish's, he was all for the rights of Witches, so it was hard to argue against him.

"Croix" Ursula began to say, "Do you think the Cavendish family is...corrupted?"

Croix looked shocked, slightly angry even,"What? How could you say such a thing about the purest and remaining last noble witch families?"

Ursula tried to avoid eye contact with Croix, "Well it's just that, for so long they've been a noble witch family, though recently they've been a British noble family as well, they've become subjects of the very nation that would kill them if they found out"

"Witch history is British history," Croix said, "The British will come to accept Witches as well as everywhere else, for now, we must hide, and hiding as nobles certainly help improve the opinion of the citizens and parliament"

"But what about the traditions and culture of English witches? Won't they lose that in-"

Coix cut her off, "The traditions are well intact, you worry too much, Chariot" Croix smiled, "It was great seeing you again, but I must be off, farewell"

Croix turned and walk along the path towards Boston, Ursula was conflicted and didn't know what to think, however, she came here with the plan to meet up With Washington once again, so with haste, she followed the sounds of gunfire, pushing through the snow.

While she was going through a fun and exciting adventure, I was bringing home some food from the market, as I opened the door I saw everybody at a table talking to each other.

"Sieges last a long time, Sucy," Lotte said.

"Look who's back!" Jasminka cried out.

Everyone at the table directed their attention to me as I gave the basket of food to Jasminka and took a seat next to the table, "What are you guys talking about?" I asked.

"Lotte is suggesting that we leave town just in case the siege ends soon, but I argue that the Americans aren't even going to win the siege" Sucy explained.

"Why would the siege danger us?" I asked, "We're not redcoats"

Lotte sighed, "We can never be too careful, in bloody warfare it can be hard to tell who you're shooting sometimes"

"What about the Luna Nova? Isn't the entire reason we came to stay here is so that the siege would free her?" I said.

"We aren't leaving forever" Lotte spoke, "We will come back as soon as the siege is over, then take the Luna Nova for ourselves"

"If we are going to leave we need to stock up on things, that could take a few days," Sucy remarked.

Lotte smiled, "Then it is settled, we gather materials for the next few days and then leave!"

"I never agreed to that," Sucy angrily said.

"Listen, Boston has no access to the countryside, British supply ships won't arrive for a while, we must leave!" Lotte argued.

Unknown to me was that while we were bickering, a certain Diana Cavendish was flying over Boston to the harbor, avoiding the line of sight of any redcoat or citizen. She flew to the back of the ship she once stayed in, sighting that the window she broke was boarded up with wooden planks. Diana busted through the planks with force and made it into her old room.

"That likely wasn't the best plan…" She quietly said to herself.

Quickly after that, a group of sailors opened the door behind her, "Who's there!" one of them yelled before seeing who it really was.

The sailors all bowed, "Welcome back miss Cavendish"

So many things were happening and I was a part of none of them.

Across the river, just outside of Boston, George was ready to make a plan, as Ursula made her way towards the camp, George was discussing with his junior officers on how the plan should go.

Before Ursula could speak she overheard them talking.

"I propose we end the siege at full force, sending an army of foot soldiers right to the center of the city" George suggested, the officers around him looked at each other and thought about it.

"General Washington, I overrule your proposition" one the officers said, "The British are far too fortified, we would be pushed back in minutes"

Then what should we do?" Asked another officer.

Another one of the officers pointed to spot on the map, "By setting up Knox's Artillery here, we might be able to force the British out of Boston, as long as we set up cannons surrounding the city as well to confuse the British"

The officers all looked at each other and nodded, George looked at them all with determination, "The plan is settled"

"I'll be coming with you," Ursula said as she sneaked up onto them.

George quickly turned around, shocked at who he was seeing, "Cha-...Ursula? I have seen you in-"

"I know" Ursula cut him off, "But now I am here to help you"

George stood up and walked over to Ursula, "You can't" he whispered "It's too dangerous"

"George, please" Ursula responded, "I must do this"

George sighed, "Alright fine, but don't use your magic" he then turned back to his junior officers, "It is time, let us prepare"

A day had passed and during the night I was thinking, I've certainly stayed up thinking about home or sailing or that weird dream I had about Montezuma, King of the Aztecs, but this time I was thinking about the war, when I first came to the Americas I was on the side of the British, but now I feel confused, the colonists believe that the Taxation on them is unfair, and done without consent, with no real colonial representative in the British parliament, but the British think of the colonists as British, and so they are already represented, but which to do I believe in?

I had flashbacks of all the things I've been through, people during the Boston Tea Party years ago yelling "No Taxation without representation!" and people on the streets of Boston crying out "Give me liberty or give me death!"

I heard something outside, it sounded loud but far away, like a shot from a musket but on a larger scale, it echoed in the city, but it was clear where it came from and what it was.

"Cannon fire," I thought to myself, I quickly got up and put on something more than the nightgown I was wearing, I ran outside my room and almost ran into Lotte in the hallway.

"Do you hear cannon fire!?" Lotte asked in distress, I nodded in response.

Sucy walked out of her room while rubbing her eye, "What's going on?"

"It's the siege!" Lotte resorted to and ran down the stairs, me and Sucy followed behind.

Downstairs we ran into Jasminka and Constance, who informed us also about the mysterious cannon fire outside. All of us walked out the door into the Boston streets, it seemed like we weren't the only ones who heard the sound, as many other Boston citizens came outside of their houses to see what all the noise was. It was dark and hard to see, but I noticed flashes of light in the distance. "Those must be the cannon," I said.

All the while an army of redcoats marched through the Boston streets, they seemed ready to fight. Diana was watching the cannon fire from the ship she was in, General Howe wasn't far away from her, he was shocked at what was going on, but what he didn't know was these cannon were but a decoy for the real attack.

High up the hill, Washington and Ursula pushed the main Artillery up the hill to the waypoint, the cannon were aimed at just the right spot. As Ursula overlooked the men fortifying the area, she thought about what George said to his men during the day before the attack, "Our posterity depends on the vigor of our exertions, if any man in action shall hide himself or retreat from the enemy without the orders of his commanding officer, he will be instantly shot down as an example of cowardliness"

It was fierce and scary but moving.

"We must pray that they surrender…" Ursula said.

George turned to her, "You came along just to make sure this didn't turn into direct violence, didn't you?"

Ursula gave a smirk in response.

It was just about morning, and after such a commotion, General Howe finally saw the 20 cannon, fully fortified and aimed perfectly at Boston harbor. Diana walked up to William Howe, "How are you going to get across this I wonder?" she said.

"My God" Howe exclaimed, "These fellows have done more work in one night then my men could do in three months"

"An interesting remark but one that does not answer my question," Diana said.

Andrew came running up to William with a concerned look in his eye, "General Howe, the men are awaiting orders"

Howe thought long and hard, but you could see the defeat in his eyes, "Retreat" He simply said.

"What?!" Andrew said in shock.

"Retreat!" Howe yelled, "Bring every soldier and loyalist citizen on board!"

Andrew was perplexed, "There must be something else we can do."

"A part of being a good general is knowing when you have been defeated" Howe explained, "We either leave or die, and leaving doesn't mean we lose the war, just the battle"

Andrew reluctantly agreed, but Diana was worried.

And so it was, I and the rest watched as British redcoats and loyalists citizens walked the streets to the harbor, with revolutionaries cheering and yelling at them. Lotte, meanwhile, noticed how they left the Luna Nova alone.

It wasn't just redcoats who were leaving, I also saw families, families with children and possessions with a sad face as they left, Boston was their home, and it was taken away from them. As they sailed away, the ships fired cannon shots at the place where the American artillery was stationed, but it didn't seem to affect them.

"We're out of range!" Ursula said.

"Yes but so are they" George responded, "but that does not matter, for the siege is over"

Many hours passed, and soon we saw blue-coated men walk into the streets of Boston for the first time, all being led by one man on a horse, George Washington. A single soldier came running to us, the soldier threw off his hat as he was running towards us and revealed who he really was.

"Amanda!" I yelled out in happiness.

Amanda hugged all of us at once as soon as she got to us, "Sure Jaysus I didn't think I'd ever see you guys again!"

"I didn't think you'd actually survive," Sucy said as we parted.

Amanda laughed, "Well come on now! The Luna Nova's free now, ain't it? Let's head over!" Amanda quickly ran over to the harbor, me and the rest followed close behind, a smile was on all of our faces. Lotte overtook Amanda in speed as she was the most excited, and eventually we were face to face with the Luna Nova once again, with no redcoats to bind us.

Lotte looked happy as ever, but for some reason, she looked down and covered her face with her arm and started sobbing.

I frowned, "Lotte? What's wrong?"

Lotte turned around, she was crying, but she still had a massive smile on her face, "I'm just...so happy, that despite it being nearly 6 years, you guys all still stayed with me and the Luna Nova, you never lost faith in me as I never lost faith in you, in the beginning, I thought of you as nothing but merchant sailors that would only stay with me for a couple of months, but it's been 5 years, and I now see you all as my true friends"

We all smiled, although Amanda was scratching the back of her head, "I'm...sorry for leaving ye lads for a militia"

Lotte giggled, "No worries!"

"Hey! My enlistment ends in just a few months, and I'd be happy to join you, lads, back on the Luna Nova" Amanda said.

I and Jasminka cheered happily as Sucy, Lotte and Constance smiled brightly.

I and the crew climbed back onto the ship, it's been so long, I felt a wave of happiness flow over me when feeling the deck on my boots, Lotte hugged the mast, and Sucy was checking the side of the ship for mushrooms, but I noticed something away from the ship, I saw Diana in a black cloak hiding away, and running out of the city, she didn't get on the British ships with the rest of the loyalists, but why?


End file.
